tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33655512332887403642018-03-19T13:30:56.054-07:00German JamisonHe established Qamar Energy to meet the need for regionally-based v energy insight and investment. He is an expert on energy strategy and economics, described as “one of the energy world’s great minds”. he led major consulting assignments and for a variety of international oil companies on Los Angeles business development, integrated gas and power generation and renewable energy. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1382125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-89533507717123282042018-03-19T13:30:00.001-07:002018-03-19T13:30:56.222-07:00How Big Is the Peak Capacity Market for Batteries?<p>The age of storage serving peak power has only just begun, so the size of that market is very much up for debate.</p><p>California has already <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/nrg-suspension-puente-gas-plant-what-does-that-mean#gs.a_CoTpM">halted a new gas plant</a>&nbsp;in favor of energy storage in its place. Elsewhere, regulators called on PG&amp;E to <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/pge-must-solicit-energy-storage-ders-to-replace-three-existing-gas-plants#gs.vn9ptmE">acquire storage instead of paying to maintain</a> two existing gas peaker plants. An Arizona utility recently procured a solar and battery project specifically to serve <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/50-megawatt-battery-will-give-arizona-peak-power-from-the-sun">capacity for system peak hours</a>.</p><p>These are early signs of a dramatic shift in how the grid gets electricity when demand is highest. “The amount of press written on storage as a peaker replacement has grown tremendously over the last several years,” said Paul Denholm, a researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. “My concern was, this might be exciting, but is there a real market there?”</p><p>When a new market appears and draws investment, it comes with the risk of proving shorter-lived than developers hoped. That dynamic played out in the early storage market for frequency regulation in PJM, which has <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/new-market-rules-destroyed-the-economics-of-storage-in-pjm-what-happened">mostly dried up</a> due to oversaturation and rule changes.</p><p>Denholm and colleague Robert Margolis decided to test the market potential for storage-as-peakers, using load data and simulated solar PV production from California. Their <a href="https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy18osti/70905.pdf" target="_blank">new study</a> suggests that peak power in California alone constitutes a massive market opportunity, which will continue to grow as solar capacity increases.</p><p>First, Denholm and Margolis established a baseline of how much storage could compete for peak capacity without any intermittent renewables to deal with. They modeled four-hour storage, because that’s the threshold that California rewards with a full resource adequacy credit.As more batteries come online, they incrementally flatten the peak, eventually requiring longer duration units to meet additional peak demands, as illustrated in the following chart.</p><p><img alt="" class="modal" src="/content/images/articles/storage_peak_flattening_XL.png" style="max-width: 100%" /></p><p><em>Once enough four-hour storage enters the market for peak capacity, it will flatten the peak to longer than four hours, creating a market limit for that kind of asset. (Image credit: NREL)</em></p><p>The conservative cap on that four-hour storage market for 2020 turned out to be around 3,000 megawatts. Storage without solar on the grid is a purely hypothetical scenario. After establishing that baseline, the authors tested the efficacy of storage to meet peaks at differing levels of solar penetration.</p><p>At low levels of PV, the market for four-hour storage actually diminishes compared to the no-solar case, because solar pushes down the net load. Once the state hits 11 percent solar penetration, though, the market for storage surpasses the base case. California has already passed that point, so storage developers needn’t worry about solar diminishing their prospects.</p><p>Beyond 11 percent solar penetration, incremental solar makes system peaks pointier, producing the famous Duck Curve. Net load decreases during daylight hours, then surges up in the evening as the sun goes down and people get home from work.</p><p>That spikiness is good business for four-hour storage. When California reaches 17 percent solar penetration, as it could by 2020, the market for storage will surge to 7,000 megawatts, the study found.</p><p>That kind of capacity greatly exceeds the ancillary services markets that offered a beachhead for early storage developers. By comparison, the market for frequency regulation in the entire U.S. is less than 5,000 megawatts. If California hits 30 percent solar, the study found, it could support nearly 10,000 megawatts of four-hour storage for peak capacity.</p><p><img alt="" class="modal" src="/content/images/articles/storage_peak_capacity_market_CA_XL.png" style="max-width: 100%" /></p><p><em>As California deploys more solar capacity, the potential market for four-hour storage will continue to grow. (Image credit: NREL)</em></p><p>“That’s real money -- that’s billions and billions of dollars of potential market,” Denholm said. “It looks like this shorter-duration storage will be able to fill a sizable fraction of the need for peaking capacity in California.”</p><p>California has 20.8 gigawatts of peaking capacity. Based on historical retirement trends, 13 gigawatts of that could shut down based on age in the next 20 years, the researchers estimate. Meanwhile, 11,000 megawatts of capacity must retire by 2029 due to California’s regulation of plants that use once-through cooling. Much of that capacity serves peak power needs as well.</p><p>The study’s numbers suggest that four-hour storage alone may not economically fill the gap of conventional peaker retirements. This requires further exploration, however. In the next decade or two, lithium-ion will become cheap enough for longer durations than are currently feasible. Meanwhile, dozens of companies are racing to commercialize alternative technologies for longer duration energy storage.</p><p>“The opportunities for this relatively short-duration storage are growing, but there’s ultimately a limit,” Denholm said. “If you want to do more, as some decarbonization scenarios require, we probably will need longer duration storage.”</p><p>The study adds depth to the general understanding that storage and solar play well together. It clarifies some of the moving pieces: solar additions change the shape of the demand curve, as do additional battery plants. An accurate prediction of the future battery capacity market requires untangling those interacting forces.</p><p>This account focused on California because it has led in both solar and storage deployment. But the findings should be of interest to other states that are adopting these resources.</p><p>A key lesson from California, Denholm said, is the importance of a regulatory framework for analyzing the relative value and life cycle costs of storage compared to conventional alternatives.</p><p>“California’s storage mandate really forced utilities to start looking at storage and do the analysis,” he noted. “Now they know how to weigh the relative merits.”</p><p>More states are following suit with robust energy storage policies, including Massachusetts, New York and Arizona.</p><p>Denholm also wants to explore more fully how storage provides resource adequacy. If recent trends continue and California starts shutting down gas plants and replacing them with storage, it will have to grapple with how to operate those assets to ensure grid reliability.</p><p>“We don’t want a situation where storage isn’t appropriately operated and you run out of energy in the middle of a hot day,” Denholm said. “That’s a nightmare for everybody.”</p><p>Unlike a gas plant, batteries can't keep running indefinitely through a heat wave, for instance. To gather reliable data on optimal dispatch for storage systems, though, more of them need to begin operations.</p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=BCdA9OQLuDg:QUqxUZnhlRg:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=BCdA9OQLuDg:QUqxUZnhlRg:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=BCdA9OQLuDg:QUqxUZnhlRg:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=BCdA9OQLuDg:QUqxUZnhlRg:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=BCdA9OQLuDg:QUqxUZnhlRg:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=BCdA9OQLuDg:QUqxUZnhlRg:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=BCdA9OQLuDg:QUqxUZnhlRg:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/BCdA9OQLuDg" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/how-big-is-the-market-for-batteries-peak-capacity Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-67280265086037214872018-03-16T14:33:00.001-07:002018-03-16T14:33:23.739-07:00MA Governor Embraces ‘Clean Peak’ Policy to Encourage Renewables Paired With Storage<p>Gov. Charlie Baker has introduced a bill to use more clean energy during Massachusetts’ hours of peak grid demand.</p><p>The governor included language in a <a href="https://www.mass.gov/news/baker-polito-administration-files-legislation-committing-over-14-billion-to-climate-change" target="_blank">proposed bill</a> to allocate $1.4 billion toward climate adaptation and environmental stewardship. The so-called Clean Peak Standard would require a minimum level of clean energy to supply the most expensive 10 percent of grid hours each year.</p><p>The policy would compliment the state’s broader renewable generation goals and ensure that clean energy goes to work at the times when capacity is most valuable. It would likely require the addition of energy storage to make intermittent wind and solar dispatchable on demand.</p><p>The Massachusetts proposal echoes <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB338" target="_blank">a law</a> in California and a proposed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/arizona-regulator-proposes-sweeping-clean-energy-plan">clean energy overhaul</a> in Arizona. It tackles the key cost driver for utilities in the coming decades: creeping peak power demand, which would traditionally drive buildout of natural gas plants.</p><p>In Massachusetts, the challenge is particularly pronounced: 10 percent of hours in the year contribute around 40 percent of the energy costs that ratepayers must cover, said Patrick Woodcock, assistant secretary of energy.</p><p>“We’ve had a long history with the renewable portfolio standard in Massachusetts and that has worked well in encouraging and providing incentives to increase renewables,” he said. “Increasingly, it is very important <em>when</em> we dispatch these resources.”</p><p>The bill empowers the Department of Energy Resources to identify which time periods to consider for the clean peak and how much energy during those hours must come from clean sources. The hours in question must contribute “a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions, or an increase in electrical prices or transmission and distribution costs to end-use electricity customers of the commonwealth.”</p><p>Now that the governor has proposed the legislation, it must work its way through the House and Senate, which have been working on their own climate adaptation and energy bills.</p><p>“When designed correctly, clean peak standards can have real benefits in meeting energy demand with clean energy,” said Michael Green, executive director of Boston-based Climate Action Business Association.</p><p>Green added that he wants to see language that won't lead to additional natural gas consumption, but will drive investment toward clean technologies like storage and microgrids. The text currently leaves it up to DOER to define what qualifies as a clean peak resource, “including, but not limited to” renewables, storage and demand response.</p><p>State clean energy policy historically focused on total megawatt-hours produced in a year by wind and solar resources. Markets that increased their share of renewable generation have had to turn to flexible resources to keep the grid balanced when renewables drop off.</p><p>That usually means gas plants, but in the last two years energy storage technology has proven itself competitive.</p><p>When the Aliso Canyon gas leak left southern California without reliable peak capacity, the state fast-tracked a storage procurement that delivered close to 100 megawatts in 2016 across several dense, urban communities. Storage developers responded with speed that would be impossible with new gas plants.</p><p>More recently, bids for Xcel Energy's all-source solicitation <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/record-low-solar-plus-storage-price-in-xcel-solicitation#gs.oyxH21A">shattered records</a> for cheap projects combining renewable generation and storage.</p><p>Last month, Arizona Public Service contracted with First Solar for peak power delivery from a <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/50-megawatt-battery-will-give-arizona-peak-power-from-the-sun#gs.YuBR0rE">joint solar and battery facility</a>. This bid beat out gas plants and standalone solar in an all-source competition, establishing a new model for firm renewable power.</p><p>“We need to get our policies caught up to where technology is,” said Lon Huber, head of consulting at Strategen, who <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/upgrade-renewable-portfolio-standards-peak-capacity-arizona#gs.d3PVdK8">developed the clean peak concept</a> on behalf of Arizona’s ratepayer advocate. “States are starting to wake up to the fact that clean technology can do way more they thought it could.”</p><p>The Baker Administration has a history of supporting storage growth. It awarded $20 million to a group of storage projects in December. Last summer, DOER set an energy storage target of <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-massachusetts-energy-storage-target-has-finally-arrived#gs.0yJEC4Y">200 megawatt-hours by 2020</a>.</p><p>A state analysis from 2016 found that 1,766 megawatts would <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/why-the-new-massachusetts-energy-storage-report-is-such-a-big-deal">optimize system benefits for ratepayers</a>, but concluded that 600 by 2025 was more feasible and would save residents $800 million in system costs. That level of storage would equate to roughly 5 percent of the state's peak load.</p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=8oL1LFT7rK8:5vPL3JeaXs0:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=8oL1LFT7rK8:5vPL3JeaXs0:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=8oL1LFT7rK8:5vPL3JeaXs0:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=8oL1LFT7rK8:5vPL3JeaXs0:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=8oL1LFT7rK8:5vPL3JeaXs0:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=8oL1LFT7rK8:5vPL3JeaXs0:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=8oL1LFT7rK8:5vPL3JeaXs0:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/8oL1LFT7rK8" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/massachusetts-governor-embraces-clean-peak-policy Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-80612706547289896422018-03-16T05:03:00.001-07:002018-03-16T05:03:55.150-07:00Clean Energy Supporters Begin to Make Inroads With Republican Policymakers<p>Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee, railed against House lawmakers for “holding back the American economy” with their uninformed attitudes towards renewable energy during an event in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.<br /><br />“I guarantee you, in the Senate there is bipartisan anger, anger at our House colleagues for this stingy approach to tax extenders on renewable energy,” said Cantwell, referring to a fight over whether to extend credits for ‘orphan’ energy technologies that were left out of the Republican tax overhaul. The credits were ultimately saved in a <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/senate-passes-budget-bill-with-relief-for-orphan-energy-technologies-and-pu#gs.QcCKmhM">budget bill</a> passed last month.<br /><br />Cantwell asked attendees at the American Council on Renewable Energy’s Renewable Energy Policy Forum to help educate House members, “who may not have the same global view … on the success that we are making.”<br /><br />“We’re just in this very draconian world over there that the tax bill is everything, even though everybody knows it has many, many problems and needs to be fixed,” she said of the House.<br /><br />A tax reform bill proposed by House Republicans in November sought to slash tax credits for wind by more than a third and eliminate the $7,500 federal credit for electric-vehicle purchases. The credits were ultimately saved after the bill was reconciled with the Senate version.<br /><br />House members have been more generous on incentives for fossil fuels. On Wednesday, Rep.&nbsp;Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) introduced <a href="https://bucshon.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=765" target="_blank">a bill</a> that would subsidize coal-fired power plants with a tax credit. He cited the need for reliable baseload power in the event of a cold snap, echoing arguments used by Energy Secretary Rick Perry last year to justify a rule that would have subsidized coal and nuclear plants.<br /><br />“The notion that the administration wanted to pick up, as I say, ‘the bat phone’ and call the Energy Secretary and tell him to call FERC and mandate coal was some of the most ridiculous policy I’ve ever seen,” said Cantwell of the <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/ferc-rejects-does-coal-and-nuclear-bailout-plan#gs.PNadx=0">failed DOE proposal.</a></p><p>Commissioner Robert Powelson, a Republican and Trump nominee to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, reminded conference-goers on Wednesday that support for clean energy doesn’t always fall along party lines. &nbsp;<br /><br />“I’m very bullish on the prospects of where we see cleantech investment going in this country, and I certainly will be a champion for it,” said Powelson.<br /><br />Last month FERC commissioners unanimously <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/ferc-energy-storage-wholesale-markets#gs.2NE0=TQ">approved</a> a rule that will open wholesale energy markets to energy storage on an equal footing with generators and other grid resources -- a move that Powelson called a “game changer.”<br /><br />The key to swaying politicians’ views on renewable energy is making it a business issue, not a partisan one, says Heather Reams, the managing director of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES).<br /><br />A conservative group, CRES is attempting to make inroads with GOP lawmakers on clean energy policy by supporting Republican officials who sponsor clean energy legislation. It currently endorses 24 members of the House.<br /><br />“There’s been a lot of pressure on Republicans to vote like Democrats -- to vote for overhauls and massive federal programs,” said Reams. “I get why Republicans don’t get it, and I want to help them navigate that, to get to a place where they can say, ‘I never thought about that.’”<br /><br />Last year CRES <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/executives-rally-to-bring-trump-back-from-the-brink-on-paris-climate-deal#gs.l81xeXw">released an ad</a> encouraging President Trump to stay in the Paris climate agreement, which featured support from top executives and members of the White House business advisory council.<br /><br />Unlike most clean energy lobbying groups, CRES has a record of spending millions of dollars exclusively on Republican candidates. That spending has “accelerated our authenticity and believability of who we are,” said Reams.<br /><br />“As a party, we shouldn’t keep our head in the sand,” she said.</p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=D20pt59ObP8:sdFraHbq13c:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=D20pt59ObP8:sdFraHbq13c:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=D20pt59ObP8:sdFraHbq13c:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=D20pt59ObP8:sdFraHbq13c:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=D20pt59ObP8:sdFraHbq13c:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=D20pt59ObP8:sdFraHbq13c:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=D20pt59ObP8:sdFraHbq13c:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/D20pt59ObP8" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/clean-energy-republican-policymakers Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-68115457508470736702018-03-16T04:03:00.001-07:002018-03-16T04:03:18.023-07:00Arizona Regulators Freeze New Gas Plants, Demand More Clean Energy Planning From Utilities<p>Arizona’s energy future took an unexpected turn this week.</p><p>At a hearing Tuesday for the routine assessment of major utilities’ long-term resource plans, regulators <a href="http://images.edocket.azcc.gov/docketpdf/0000186395.pdf" target="_blank">rebuked the proposals</a>&nbsp;and instituted a nine-month moratorium on new gas plants larger than 150 megawatts.</p><p>The commissioners are in the midst of examining an <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/arizona-regulator-proposes-sweeping-clean-energy-plan">energy system overhaul</a> to pursue 80 percent clean energy with a focus on energy storage to meet peak power with clean sources. The building freeze will prevent near-term investments in gas infrastructure that could become stranded assets if the grid overhaul comes into force.</p><p>Halting gas construction was an unusual move, especially for a panel of five Republicans in a state without a political mandate to tackle emissions from electricity, as seen in California or Massachusetts. Indeed, the nine-month freeze appears to be the first of its kind.</p><p>In contrast to the recently proposed grid reform, the utilities’ Integrated Resource Plans, originally submitted last year, relied primarily on natural gas for keeping the lights over the next 15 years.</p><p>Arizona Public Service, for instance, <a href="https://www.aps.com/library/resource%20alt/2017IntegratedResourcePlan.pdf" target="_blank">calls for more than 5,000 megawatts of natural gas additions</a> (some of which replace retiring capacity), but negligible new utility-scale renewables. The plan does anticipate 3,315 megawatts of distributed solar, though, and several hundred megawatts of energy storage.</p><p>In Arizona, the utility regulators don’t approve or reject IRPs, they “acknowledge” them, or not.</p><p>“This is the first time the Commission did not acknowledge the utility IRPs,” said Jeff Schlegel, who testified at the meeting on behalf of the public interest group Southwest Energy Efficiency Project. “For the Commission to not acknowledge meant essentially that they had some pretty serious concerns with what’s in the utility plans.”</p><p>The regulators then made their concerns explicit in an amendment that called on the utilities to consider a scenario where fossil fuel additions are <a href="http://images.edocket.azcc.gov/docketpdf/0000186398.pdf" target="_blank">capped at 20 percent</a>.</p><p><a href="http://images.edocket.azcc.gov/docketpdf/0000186485.pdf" target="_blank">Another amendment</a> asks them to model a case with 1,000 megawatts of energy storage, 50 percent clean energy and 20 percent demand side management. That mix of resources more closely resembles the grid overhaul proposed in January by Commissioner Andy Tobin.</p><p>The <a href="http://images.edocket.azcc.gov/docketpdf/0000186484.pdf" target="_blank">freeze on large new gas plants</a>&nbsp;expires January 1, 2019, and includes a process for utilities to seek special approval if needed.</p><p>APS didn't have any plans to build new gas facilities in that timeframe, said Greg Bernosky, director of state regulation and compliance, so the moratorium will not affect any utility operations. The decision also applies to Tucson Electric Power and UNS Electric.</p><h2>Fast times on the Arizona grid</h2><p>Tuesday's outcome highlights a difficulty of the energy transition: utility planning takes a long time, while new energy technologies move very fast.</p><p>"It’s a multi-year process, so information gets outdated," Bernosky said of the IRP process. He supports a Commission decision Tuesday to begin streamlining the IRP process.</p><p>As a result of that procedural pace, the vision described in APS' plan, based on the view from Q3 2016, now looks out of date compared to APS' own actions.</p><p>Last month, the utility announced a <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/50-megawatt-battery-will-give-arizona-peak-power-from-the-sun">groundbreaking solar-plus-storage plant</a> to be built by First Solar, which will store solar production in a 50-megawatt battery to dispatch precisely during the summer peak hours of 3 to 8 p.m.</p><p>That project won an open-ended request for proposals, beating out gas plants and standalone solar and batteries. In doing so, it exceeds the IRP's expectations for new batteries and utility-scale solar in the next five years.</p><p>"When we went to market and saw what was available to meet the need, that project was there and we were able to obtain it," Bernosky said.</p><p>That experience reveals a disconnect between the official projections of grid planning and what's available now from the clean energy industry. The utility won't insist on outdated projections in the face of changing market dynamics, Bernosky added.</p><p>"The IRP is a planning document -- it’s not a rigid, static document," Bernosky said. "It’s something we use to look out over a period of time, but we are making short-term procurement decisions based on what is available in the market and what meets our customer and system needs."</p><h2>The right kind of solar</h2><p>Still, the planning document carries weight as an expression of where the utility thinks its energy mix is heading. It's already looking probable that the next iteration will differ in significant ways.</p><p>APS remains skeptical of standalone, utility-scale solar. Given the expected influx of distributed solar, the grid will see a large influx of generation in the middle of the day that drops off before the evening peak hours. APS isn't interested in simply getting more surplus generation at noon.</p><p>"If we were to just keep doing more solar without that blend of [storage] technology, we would be almost causing more harm to the system or additional costs to customers," Bernosky said. "The ability to catch and release solar with that technology pair is really exciting to us now and we'd love to see more in the future."</p><p>A year or two ago, that asset hadn't materialized, and APS turned primarily to gas as the future tool to balance the fluctuations of solar. In the meantime, APS itself has proven that another option exists and can even beat a gas plant's economics.</p><p>The utility does not have any procurement processes going on currently, but is evaluating what will come next, said Jeff Burke, director of resource planning. New rounds of procurement, in turn, will inform future planning efforts.</p><p>The commissioners' skepticism will influence which investments Arizona utilities can expect to get rate recovery on in the coming years, said Stacy Tellinghuisen, senior climate policy analyst at Western Resource Advocates. That organization modeled a high renewables scenario for APS that it says would save ratepayers roughly $300 million compared to the official IRP.</p><p>"I hope that we will see the utilities put out RFPs for clean energy resources to meet their growing loads," she said.</p><p>APS has also pursued ways to procure capacity from merchant gas plants in shorter time increments, Bernosky said, like seven years instead of 20. That allows the utility to get capacity it needs in the short term without committing to an unnecessary expense in the long run. But, he noted, that was not described clearly in the last IRP.</p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=gP4sgsNUNH8:vSoY0a35MkI:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=gP4sgsNUNH8:vSoY0a35MkI:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=gP4sgsNUNH8:vSoY0a35MkI:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=gP4sgsNUNH8:vSoY0a35MkI:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=gP4sgsNUNH8:vSoY0a35MkI:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=gP4sgsNUNH8:vSoY0a35MkI:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=gP4sgsNUNH8:vSoY0a35MkI:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/gP4sgsNUNH8" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/arizona-regulators-freeze-new-gas-plants-renewables-planning Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-23104819540748732812018-03-15T12:43:00.001-07:002018-03-15T12:43:04.789-07:00Could FERC Order Put State Clean Energy Policies in Danger?<p>The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission pleased almost every sector of the energy industry -- except for coal and nuclear power plant owners -- with its <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/ferc-rejects-does-coal-and-nuclear-bailout-plan">unanimous decision to reject</a> Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s plan to offer price supports to baseload power plants in the name of grid resilience.&nbsp;</p><p>But last week’s 3-to-2 vote approving ISO New England’s new market pricing proposal has reignited fears among clean energy and consumer advocates that FERC is setting the stage to preempt state clean energy policies in the name of market fairness.&nbsp;</p><p>Last week’s order (<a href="https://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20180309-4003" target="_blank">PDF</a>) was narrowly approved, with Trump appointees Ray McIntyre Neil Chatterjee approving, and commissioners Richard Glick, a Democrat, and Robert Powelson, a Republican, dissenting.</p><p>With the approval, ISO-NE is free to proceed with a plan to split its capacity market bidding into two parts. The market reform, dubbed Competitive Auctions with Sponsored Policy Resources (CASPR), is a complicated effort to balance zero marginal-cost wind and solar power against fossil fuel and nuclear-powered generators for bidding to provide power in years to come.&nbsp;</p><p>Much like a similar proposal from <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/squared/read/pjms-new-battle-over-coal-and-nuclear-power#gs.w4XVw2U">mid-Atlantic grid operator PJM</a>, ISO-NE’s plan has drawn the fire of clean energy and consumer advocates, since it’s likely to lead to higher power prices and increase the competitiveness of dirty power plants. Grid operators have argued that traditional market constructs, which set prices based on marginal generation costs, aren’t properly valuing baseload resources.&nbsp;</p><p>Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur, a Democrat and the only remaining Obama appointee, issued a separate concurrence, providing the third yes vote to pass the order. But in separate statements, both LaFleur and Glick dissented on a particular part of the order -- Paragraph 22, to be specific.&nbsp;</p><p>In that paragraph, the commission writes: “Absent a showing that a different method would appropriately address particular state policies, we intend to use the MOPR to address the impacts of state policies on the wholesale capacity markets.” This seemingly bland sentence represents a potential bombshell for state energy policies.&nbsp;</p><p>MOPR stands for "minimum offer price rule," a market mechanism that sets minimum prices for bids into energy or capacity markets, to prevent market manipulators to inject artificially low prices into the market.&nbsp;</p><p>But they’re a very problematic model to use when talking about zero marginal-cost wind and solar energy -- and both Glick and LaFleur are against using MOPR as a blanket approach to properly pricing clean energy against fueled power plans.</p><p>This issue has been a <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/squared/read/california-makes-once-in-a-decade-dr-call-ferc-mulls-states-versus-markets">hot topic of debate</a> among&nbsp;FERC stakeholders since it was introduced for discussion last May. Back then, Environmental Defense Fund's Michael Panfil told us that he and other groups supported a “limited MOPR," one that’s restricted to a particular use in markets.&nbsp;</p><p>But expanding the concept of a MOPR without these kinds of specific limits could impose on state energy policy, he warned. That’s because MOPRs could start to prevent clean energy resources from participating in capacity markets, and thus undermine the state policies that are supporting their growth.&nbsp;</p><p>In an email this week, Robbie Orvis, policy director at Energy Innovation, wrote that “Essentially, FERC proposed to address state policy by accommodating proposed market reforms that attempt to undo state policy. In ISO-NE’s case, the capacity market reforms put renewables at a disadvantage while raising costs for customers, all so that existing generators can squeak more money out of the market, which ISO-NE acknowledges is oversupplied.”&nbsp;</p><p>Natural Resources Defense Council clean energy attorney Miles Farmer responded to Friday's order by accusing commissioners Chatterjee and McIntyre of “contemplating an unprecedented power grab, seeking to coerce states into abandoning or modifying their energy policies.”&nbsp;</p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/MilesFarmer/status/973185880751001600" target="_blank">Farmer tweeted</a>&nbsp;about how ISO-NE’s application of a MOPR could undercut state clean energy policies: “FERC’s CASPR order declares that by default, FERC will apply MOPR not only to market manipulators, but also to resources who submit low offers because they are supported by a state policy,” he wrote. “In many cases, this minimum offer price calculated by FERC will be too high to ‘clear’ (be chosen) in the market, and thus the generator won’t be able to sell any of its capacity, even though it is being supported by the state and is in fact able to supply capacity.”&nbsp;</p><p>Commissioner Glick agreed that a blanket use of the MOPR “is ill-conceived, misguided, and a serious threat to consumers, the environment and, in fact, the long-term viability of the Commission’s capacity market construct,” he wrote in <a href="https://www.ferc.gov/media/statements-speeches/glick/2018/03-09-18-glick.asp#.Wqq1jCPMxE8" target="_blank">a dissent</a> attached to Friday’s order. “The suggestion in today’s order that the Commission will rely on MOPRs -- or something similar -- to mitigate the impacts of state public policies will eventually come to rank as a historically serious misstep.”</p><p>Glick wrote that FERC should instead “stop using the MOPR to interfere with state public policies and, instead, apply the MOPR in only the limited circumstance for which it was originally intended: to prevent the exercise of buyer-side market power.”</p><p>In a <a href="https://www.ferc.gov/media/statements-speeches/lafleur/2018/03-09-18-lafleur.asp#.Wqq7ZCPMxE8" target="_blank">separately released statement</a>, LaFleur noted that, despite her yes vote on the order, “I reject the notion, however, that we should use the MOPR as a 'standard solution' -- a blunt instrument -- against the impacts of all state policies.” She suggested alternatives, such as limited MOPRs, or even pricing carbon-neutral resources, as other grid operators such as New York ISO are contemplating.</p><p>And as Glick wrote, adding LaFleur’s dissent of the MOPR to his and Powelson’s dissents of the order itself means that the policy of using the MOPR as a blanket approach “is not adopted by a majority of the Commissioners that support the order.”&nbsp;</p><p>This unusual situation -- a split decision on different parts of an order that was passed with a bare minimum of yes votes -- is likely to lead to legal challenges to the order. Former FERC commissioner Norman Bay wrote <a href="https://twitter.com/NormanCBay/status/972881499577049088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.utilitydive.com%2Fnews%2Fsplit-ferc-approves-iso-ne-2-part-capacity-market-plan%2F518904%2F&amp;tfw_site=UtilityDive" target="_blank">on Twitter</a> that opponents to ISO-NE’s CASPR proposal are likely to redouble their efforts for a rehearing, and cite the “fractured vote” as a cause for legal appeals.&nbsp;</p><p>Meanwhile, mid-Atlantic grid operator PJM, the country's largest, has two capacity proposals before FERC, noted Energy Innovation's Orvis: a two-part auction similar to CASPR, and an expansion of its MOPR. That will set the stage for the next big debate over how to manage the shifting balance of supply and demand, in a grid market that encompasses <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/alternatives-to-doe-coal-and-nuclear-market-intervention">many of the coal-fired and nuclear power plants</a> that have been petitioning the federal government for relief.</p><p>Separately, PJM is also asking FERC to approve an energy market price formation proposal that has drawn fire from clean energy and consumer groups, since it would increase total energy and capacity market costs from 2 to 5 percent, largely in higher prices that would benefit baseload power plants. In its Friday filing to meet <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/grid-operators-report-ferc-resilience">FERC's demand for a report on grid resilience</a>, PJM stated that its proposed market change, is an "important and inter-related component of ensuring grid resilience," indicating that it intends to link the two issues from now on.</p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=GXonwEhKcFI:R3ViLaijCSY:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=GXonwEhKcFI:R3ViLaijCSY:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=GXonwEhKcFI:R3ViLaijCSY:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=GXonwEhKcFI:R3ViLaijCSY:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=GXonwEhKcFI:R3ViLaijCSY:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=GXonwEhKcFI:R3ViLaijCSY:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=GXonwEhKcFI:R3ViLaijCSY:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/GXonwEhKcFI" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/could-ferc-order-put-state-clean-energy-policies-in-danger Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-35423020768603200752018-03-15T12:13:00.001-07:002018-03-15T12:13:34.057-07:00DOE Official: Clean Energy Funding Should Be Cut for ‘Exceeding Goals’<p>The Energy Department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) is so successful that its funding should be diverted elsewhere, said the agency’s Under&nbsp;Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes.<br /><br />“In the area of EERE…we have been meeting or exceeding our goals” over the last five years, said Menezes, who spoke at The American Council on Renewable Energy’s Renewable Energy Policy Forum in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. He praised the office for helping reduce the cost of electric-vehicle batteries, wind and solar technologies. &nbsp;<br /><br />“Our job is to have early-stage research and move it along the technological readiness levels, eventually getting it to where it’s commercially deployable. But once it’s commercially deployable, then the question becomes: What role does the department need to spend?” he said.<br /><br />“To be sure, you could continue spending money there, but then where would be the opportunities for new energy breakthroughs?” he asked.<br /><br />The Trump administration’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/" target="_blank">2019 budget proposal</a> released in February slashes funding for several clean energy programs, including EERE and the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). According to&nbsp;<a href="https://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2018/02/f48/Energy%20Department%20FY%202019%20Budget%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf" target="_blank">numbers released by DOE</a>, the EERE would receive $696 million, a cut of $1.3 billion below its 2017 budget. The administration proposed <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/report-finds-that-arpa-e-is-working-while-trump-seeks-to-shut-it-down#gs.r1OInDY" target="_blank">eliminating ARPA-E</a> altogether.<br /><br />The plan has been widely criticized by clean energy advocates for failing to adequately consider climate change and the shifting tides of the energy industry.<br /><br />Menezes’ rationale for gutting EERE funding is “like stopping research in home-movie technology after the VCR,” wrote Elizabeth Noll, a legislative expert for the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/elizabeth-noll/no-dodging-energy-budget-rick-perry-time" target="_blank">blog post</a> this week. “Wind, solar, energy storage and other clean technologies are at the VCR phase -- and Secretary Perry’s budget stands in the way of the United States reaping the rewards that come with further developing them here at home.”<br /><br />As Energy Under&nbsp;Secretary, Menezes is tasked with advising Energy Secretary Rick Perry on clean energy technologies and research initiatives.<br /><br />According to the DOE’s <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/about-office-energy-efficiency-and-renewable-energy" target="_blank">own estimates</a>, $12 billion in EERE funding has yielded a net economic benefit of over $230 billion, with an annual return on investment of more than 20 percent.<br /><br />“They just can’t win -- can’t be too successful or funding is slashed. Effective programs are penalized for success,” <a href="https://twitter.com/dcjams/status/973989131155058702?ref_src=twcamp%5Eshare%7Ctwsrc%5Eios%7Ctwgr%5Ecom.tinyspeck.chatlyio.share%7Ctwcon%5E7100%7Ctwterm%5E0" target="_blank">tweeted</a> Jamie Nolan, a former government contractor who served as communications director for the DOE’s SunShot Initiative and attended Wednesday’s conference.&nbsp;<br /><br />Energy Secretary Rick Perry is scheduled to defend the administration’s 2019 budget proposal before a House Appropriations subcommittee on Thursday. The secretary distanced himself from the 2018 budget proposal last year, telling the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee it "was written before I got here."<br /><br />While renewable energy programs are being targeted for cuts, Trump’s budget proposal would increase funding for high-efficiency coal plants and small modular units by 50 percent. The agency specifically plans to establish competitive funding opportunities for <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/trump-doe-small-modular-coal-plants-what-does-that-mean">small and modular coal-fired power plants</a>. Smaller coal plants would fit better into an evolving electricity system with increasing amounts of intermittent wind and solar power, said Steve Winberg, assistant secretary for fossil energy at the DOE.<br /><br />The problem is, small modular coal plants are largely unheard of, and they may never make economic sense,&nbsp;according to&nbsp;analysts.<br /><br />The president's proposed budget has virtually no chance of being enacted as written. Ultimately, it will be up to Congress to decide what government spending looks like, and last year lawmakers sidestepped&nbsp;many of the drastic cuts asked for by the administration.<br /><br />“I will be fighting with my colleagues to provide full EERE funding in next week’s omnibus,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee, who also spoke at the ACORE event. “We are working with our colleagues to try to accelerate, even if it’s only piece by piece, the investment in [research and development] that’s needed.”</p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=AuDgOWw3tik:gqNx-pg5jdg:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=AuDgOWw3tik:gqNx-pg5jdg:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=AuDgOWw3tik:gqNx-pg5jdg:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=AuDgOWw3tik:gqNx-pg5jdg:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=AuDgOWw3tik:gqNx-pg5jdg:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=AuDgOWw3tik:gqNx-pg5jdg:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=AuDgOWw3tik:gqNx-pg5jdg:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/AuDgOWw3tik" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/official-clean-energy-funding-should-be-cut-for-exceeding-goals Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-11977581274973284132018-03-15T04:08:00.001-07:002018-03-15T04:08:09.801-07:00Why Is Microsoft Getting Into Rooftop Solar?<p>A bid by tech giant Microsoft to become the largest distributed solar offtaker in Singapore sounds ambitious. But it could actually be safer than buying a utility-scale project, according to Brian Janous, Microsoft's general manager of energy.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>Earlier this month, Microsoft announced plans to procure 60 megawatts of solar energy in Singapore.</p><p>Speaking&nbsp;<em><a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/google-and-microsoft-are-shaping-energy-markets#gs.VuJ2u3Y">The Interchange</a></em>&nbsp;podcast this month, Janous told GTM that plans to source that capacity from rooftop solar would not be as risky as trying to get the whole amount from a single plant.</p><p>“There is a small amount of volume risk,” he said. “But what you don't have is the risk that the entire project doesn't get developed. We've had other projects that have had challenges related to permitting issues that may put in jeopardy 100 percent of the output."</p><p>“With this one, because it is distributed, in some ways you reduce that development risk. You might have slightly more uncertainty -- is it going to be 60 megawatts or 58 megawatts? But you're distributing some of that exposure you have in traditional development projects," explained Janous.&nbsp;</p><p>In the <em>Interchange</em> interview, Janous also talked about Microsoft's outlook for battery storage and pairing renewable energy directly with localized demand at facilities around the world.</p><p>The procurement agreement, with Singaporean PV developer Sunseap Group, marks Microsoft’s first clean energy deal in Asia and will create the largest solar portfolio in Singapore to date, Microsoft said.</p><p>The buildout, which will span “hundreds of rooftops across the nation,” according to Microsoft, is also said to be the first rooftop solar portfolio in the country focused on serving data center energy consumption.</p><p>“Our cloud services are helping to power Singapore’s digital transformation, and today’s agreement will ensure that transformation is increasingly powered by clean energy,” said Kevin Wo, managing director of Microsoft Singapore, in <a href="https://news.microsoft.com/2018/02/28/microsoft-and-sunseap-sign-agreement-on-largest-ever-solar-project-in-singapore/">a press release</a>.</p><p>Microsoft, which has more than 850 employees in Singapore, will not own the solar plants itself, said Janous. Instead, it will buy 100 percent of the energy produced by solar plants built, owned and operated by Sunseap, over a 20-year period.</p><p>Microsoft was forced to look at distributed generation because there was simply not enough space for utility-scale projects in Singapore, Janous said. “We were really limited to just looking at what is available, and in Singapore it's rooftops,” he commented. “That was the only clear route we had to get to a material amount of energy.”</p><p>Another problem for Microsoft was that it needed much more space than could be found on its own buildings. Microsoft’s data centers are about the size of a Walmart supercenter, said Janous, but “we're consuming 10 to 20 times the amount of electricity.”&nbsp;</p><p>The amount of energy that could be generated on Microsoft’s data center rooftop space in Singapore would only serve the adjacent offices, he said. The company’s Singapore data centers deliver Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and numerous other cloud services for customers.</p><p>The deal is Microsoft’s third international clean energy announcement, following two wind deals announced in Ireland and The Netherlands in 2017.</p><p>Once operational, the new solar project will bring Microsoft’s total global direct procurement in renewable energy projects to 860 megawatts, said Christian Belady, general manager for cloud infrastructure strategy and architecture at Microsoft.</p><p>The Singapore deal puts Microsoft on track to power 50 percent of its global data center load with renewable energy this year, he added.&nbsp;</p><p>The contract is also a major coup for Sunseap, which in January signed a 21-year power-purchase agreement for 4 megawatts of generation with port operator PSA, and has assets including a 140-megawatt solar farm in India and a 10-megawatt PV project in Cambodia.</p><p>Listen to the interview with Janous below.</p><p><iframe scrolling="no" src="https://art19.com/shows/b4df7c16-a169-4be5-8bfa-6dbb20a74f6d/episodes/2dd0e7dd-2533-4cf6-8109-6ea6fa9cb50a/embed" style="width: 100%; height: 200px; border: 0 none;"></iframe></p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=WrmwZvaBItA:oKa4fWsxP1E:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=WrmwZvaBItA:oKa4fWsxP1E:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=WrmwZvaBItA:oKa4fWsxP1E:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=WrmwZvaBItA:oKa4fWsxP1E:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=WrmwZvaBItA:oKa4fWsxP1E:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=WrmwZvaBItA:oKa4fWsxP1E:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=WrmwZvaBItA:oKa4fWsxP1E:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/WrmwZvaBItA" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/why-is-microsoft-getting-into-rooftop-solar Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-58423992827124026262018-03-14T11:26:00.001-07:002018-03-14T11:26:25.514-07:00Efficiency Startup Gets Funding to Cut Energy Use by Buildings<p>Carbon Lighthouse, a San Francisco-based&nbsp;<a href="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2018/02/the-energy-efficiency-olympics-who-s-taking-home-gold-silver-and-bronze.html">energy-efficiency</a>&nbsp;company, raised $27 million to expand its engineering and marketing efforts. GRC SinoGreen Fund led the oversubscribed funding round and JCI Ventures, SV Tech Ventures and EBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s Ulupono Initiative also participated, according to Carbon Lighthouse Chief Executive Officer Brenden Millstein. Other investors included Ekistic Ventures, Tom Steyer’s Radicle Impact Partners, former General Motors Co. Vice Chairman Steve Girsky and Tesla Inc. Chief Technology Officer Jeffrey B Straubel.</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/EnergyEfficiencyRssFeed/~4/T0iB1AXKPlc" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Energy Efficiency RSS Feed http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2018/03/efficiency-startup-gets-funding-to-cut-energy-use-by-buildings.html Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-55968736170251152192018-03-14T07:56:00.001-07:002018-03-14T07:56:10.180-07:00A Global Game Changer for Energy Efficiency Investments<p>A new underwriting and risk assessment standard could help scale up this $1 trillion global market.</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/EnergyEfficiencyRssFeed/~4/OSMtBAyyuWA" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Energy Efficiency RSS Feed http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/pt/2018/03/a-global-game-changer-for-energy-efficiency-investments.html Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-57394189280086484552018-03-14T02:53:00.001-07:002018-03-14T02:53:04.363-07:00GE Says Its New Battery Product Can Cut Grid-Scale Storage Installation Times in Half<p>GE has released a containerized energy storage product with a competitive advantage for installation time.</p><p>The 1.2-megawatt, 4-megawatt-hour Reservoir system marks a new entry into the standardized, large-scale battery market. It reflects a strategic shift at GE’s storage practice, which <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/ge-revamps-storage-business">recently reorganized</a> after an initial foray into <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/ge-scales-back-production-of-grid-scale-durathon-batteries">battery manufacturing</a> and a detour in <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/ge-current-restructuring#gs.zTQb__Q">commercial and industrial energy services</a>.</p><p>Reservoir sounds like many other containerized battery solutions already available from companies like Fluence, BYD, Mitsubishi, LG, Samsung and others. The goal is to lower costs to developers by standardizing the product and factory testing the enclosures for quality control.</p><p>What GE does differently is ship the containers fully loaded.</p><p>“We will fully assemble and test the equipment in a controlled environment and drop ship to the site fully assembled,”&nbsp;said Eric Gebhardt, vice president and strategic technology officer at GE Power.</p><p>Typically, containerized battery systems ship without the battery cells inside, due to weight, safety or quality concerns. GE bucked the trend by designing a box that can travel with batteries in-place but disconnected. A technician with a hot stick can flip a switch onsite to reconnect the electrical circuit and get the system operational again.</p><p>That could cut installation time in half, Gebhardt said, because it eliminates time-intensive battery installation onsite.</p><p>This appears to be the first large-scale battery design with this capability.</p><p>The 50 percent cut to installation time "seems plausible and realistic," said Ravi Manghani, energy storage director at GTM Research. That still leaves other tasks like putting in a transformer, wiring different containers together and connecting to the broader grid.</p><p>"These assets can come online and start making money faster than another system that has to be assembled onsite," Manghani noted.</p><p>This approach doesn't make the work of installing batteries disappear; it shifts it to GE's assembly facilities. This saves time for the developer or EPC, and could let GE capture a higher margin for delivering a system that's closer to completion.</p><h2>Strategic leverage</h2><p>As it enters an increasingly crowded vendor landscape, GE hopes to differentiate itself through the cross-cutting expertise of its Power Division.</p><p>The development of Reservoir drew on research at the company's Global Research Center in New York, which provided battery testing and high-tech additions like silicon carbide inverters. Going forward, the storage team can tap expertise elsewhere in GE for projects that deal with the finer points of grid interconnection, black start capability and wind generation, Gebhardt said.</p><p>“It’s a full time [storage] team, and we pull in other capabilities across the rest of the organization as needed,” he said.&nbsp;“Reservoir is based on our knowledge and experience working across other fields of electricity.”</p><p>Situated within GE Power, the storage sales effort can leverage deep relationships with utility customers all over the world. That's a departure from the previous strategy of selling through the C&amp;I channel at GE Current, which also handled solar, efficient lighting and energy management.</p><p>GE has made collaborations with other Power businesses explicit, by pioneering a hybrid power plant that combines grid batteries with gas generation. While other storage vendors pitch themselves as ending the era of gas for peak capacity, GE is selling storage as a tool that makes gas plants more efficient and longer lasting.</p><p>The Reservoir line launched with a hefty order already in place: 20 megawatts/ 80 megawatt-hours. The brand will serve as an umbrella for upcoming products optimized for particular functions. The first entry is tuned to energy applications and designed to play well with renewable generation, but future iterations will toggle the ratio of power and duration to address different use cases.</p><h2>Commitment issues</h2><p>Despite recent challenges, GE's longevity and balance sheet speak is crucial to a customer buying a storage asset for 15 or 20 years.</p><p>If anything, GE is trying to prove that its latest storage effort is the real deal.</p><p>"It would be very easy for a small but growing market like storage to get de-emphasized within the broader GE corporate structure," Manghani pointed out.</p><p>Though the storage market is growing with dizzying speed, the business offers a tiny bit of income relative to GE's legacy businesses. It remains to be seen whether the newly configured storage unit can maintain the resources it needs to fully realize its vision. The history of jumping between different storage business models doesn't help in that regard.</p><p>That said, the market has come along way since the early days of the Durathon manufacturing play. A number of large players see money to be made supplying massive batteries for the grid, and GE has already brought new use cases to market with its hybrid plants.</p><p>"Does GE have the potential to be treated with more respect than these other players? Definitely it does," Manghani said. "The question is, can it deliver on that potential?"</p><p>For Gebhardt, rolling out a standardized storage product line is evidence of the company's seriousness in delivering on the promise of storage.</p><p>“It shows how much we’re committing in this area,” he said.</p><p>It's notable that the vice president who oversees technology for all of GE Power is taking the time to work on storage in particular.</p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=RZYtYT_ZUcQ:qb0freM6ajo:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=RZYtYT_ZUcQ:qb0freM6ajo:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=RZYtYT_ZUcQ:qb0freM6ajo:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=RZYtYT_ZUcQ:qb0freM6ajo:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=RZYtYT_ZUcQ:qb0freM6ajo:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=RZYtYT_ZUcQ:qb0freM6ajo:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=RZYtYT_ZUcQ:qb0freM6ajo:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/RZYtYT_ZUcQ" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/ges-new-battery-product-can-ship-fully-loaded-from-the-factory Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-72895888326608365162018-03-13T11:58:00.001-07:002018-03-13T11:58:43.251-07:00Expanding the Energy Imbalance Market is the Right Way to Regionalize California’s Grid<p>To meet its ambitious renewable energy goals, California needs to make its energy system more flexible.</p><p>In a <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/local-balancing-california-not-regional-integration">previous article</a>, we touched on how this can be accomplished through a combination of regional markets and smart management of our distribution grids. The key question is how to strike the right balance of regional integration with distribution management, while maintaining the state’s control and supporting renewable energy.</p><p>That right way is to:</p><ol><li>Fix the massive <a href="http://www.clean-coalition.org/our-work/tac/" target="_blank">market distortion</a>&nbsp;that exists around transmission cost allocation in Participating Transmission Owner (PTO) utility service territories in California&nbsp;</li><li>Expand the existing, proven approach of our <a href="https://www.rtoinsider.com/caiso-eim-2017-36294/" target="_blank">Energy Imbalance Market</a> (EIM) to additional energy import and export products</li><li>Develop a system of <a href="http://www.clean-coalition.org/regulatory-filings/cpuc-utilities-evolution-into-dedicated-distribution-system-operators-dso/" target="_blank">Distribution System Operators</a> (DSOs) to reduce needs for imports and exports&nbsp;</li></ol><p>The combination of an expanded EIM and DSOs is a lower-risk approach than jumping into a fully integrated regional transmission organization (RTO) -- which risks giving greater influence over our energy markets to interests that may be unfriendly to California’s renewable energy goals, and driving increasing costs by over-expanding interstate transmission infrastructure.</p><h2>Addressing market distortions and expanding the EIM</h2><p>The first step in getting the system right is to address transmission cost allocation. We must fix the serious market distortions in California’s energy markets from <a href="http://www.clean-coalition.org/our-work/tac/" target="_blank">Transmission Access Charges</a> (TAC) that promote excessive transmission spending, before making the problem even more intractable by spreading it across an entire region. California has already seen the difficulties of reining in out-of-control transmission costs for even a forward-thinking ISO like the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), and this would get worse with a larger, less accountable organization.</p><p>Despite transmission costs that will likely surpass generation costs within a decade, CAISO has struggled to remove the distortions that penalize those load-serving-entities and utility distribution companies that mitigate their impacts on the transmission system with distributed energy resources (DER). If a renewables-supportive CAISO is slow to develop a market-neutral TAC to unleash local renewables, imagine the challenges California ratepayers would face with an RTO spanning states with far less sophisticated distribution energy sectors.&nbsp;</p><p>Second, our existing regional markets should be expanded to provide the regional integration that is likely needed to integrate renewable energy and provide wider opportunities for California’s renewable energy. Recent analyses confirm that an expanded EIM and sophisticated distribution management together can achieve the flexibility California needs. For example, <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2015/08/Achieving-50-Percent-Renewable-Electricity-In-California.pdf" target="_blank">a 2015 study</a>&nbsp;by the Union of Concerned Scientists suggests that 9 gigawatts of non-generation flexibility from all sources will be enough to eliminate the need for curtailment of solar resources. Similarly, <a href="https://www.caiso.com/Documents/SB350Study_AggregatedReport.pdf" target="_blank">a 2016 study by CAISO</a> demonstrates that alternative approaches, such as expanding the existing EIM or deploying significant energy storage, will provide comparable benefits to an RTO.&nbsp;</p><p>An expanded EIM, coupled with more effective management of the distribution system, will achieve most of the benefits of an RTO, with real flexibility of generation, dispatch, and load to integrate renewable energy, as we <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/local-balancing-california-not-regional-integration">emphasized previously</a>. In that role, the EIM has already been highly successful in addressing short-term energy imbalances, and the addition of day-ahead and other products can provide the bulk of the potential benefits from regional integration, while opening wider markets to California’s renewable energy.&nbsp;</p><p>The EIM has been proven to work. In 2017, the EIM provided a small but critical fraction of the state’s overall imports and exports, generating over $30 million in savings, more efficient use of solar energy, and substantial greenhouse gas emission reductions. Expanded day-ahead, longer-term, ancillary services, and other products will allow cost-effective trading with out-of-state resources. By removing barriers to participation, the region’s balancing area authorities can coordinate to facilitate renewable energy integration across western North America. <a href="http://www.caiso.com/Documents/SB350Study_AggregatedReport.pdf" target="_blank">CAISO’s own sensitivity analyses</a> suggest this approach will save as much as a fully integrated RTO-managed market.</p><p>On the flip side, this approach will also reduce the risks of renewables-unfriendly market rules and much higher transmission costs.&nbsp;</p><h2>The risks of an integrated RTO and the benefits of DSOs</h2><p>There are several downsides to developing an integrated RTO.</p><p>First, an RTO would necessarily dilute California’s influence over its own electricity system, potentially opening the door for market rules that would subtly disfavor cost-effective renewables. Although the California legislature can attempt to establish common-sense standards at the launch of an RTO, any RTO board can amend its own bylaws to abolish those standards -- with California’s ability to leave the RTO later remaining an unsettled legal question.&nbsp;</p><p>To illustrate the risk, compare the difference between an expanded EIM and an integrated RTO to that between a trade agreement and a national merger. Trade agreements can be tailored to suit specific needs and can be revised or ended should they fail or deepened if they prove beneficial. A merger, once done, cannot easily be undone. California is still paying for the last major misguided “deregulation,” which resulted in the Enron scandal and cost the state’s ratepayers around $100 billion.</p><p>Second, a powerful RTO would likely drive major costs to California ratepayers from excessive transmission expansion for Super High Voltage (SHV) and associated transmission infrastructure. While an RTO might make regional transmission planning more efficient, it would still look for transmission solutions for any problem. However, each new transmission project locks ratepayers into decades of paying operations and maintenance costs and guaranteed profits that dwarf the initial capital costs, adding up to at least five times the initial investment. This is a significant concern in light of recent <a href="http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/uploadedFiles/CPUCWebsite/Content/UtilitiesIndustries/Energy/EnergyPrograms/ElectPowerProcurementGeneration/irp/2018/MAG%2520Webinar_2018-03-01_GHG%2520Calc%2520Renewable%2520Cost%2520Potential_final.pdf" target="_blank">Integrated Resource Planning filings</a> suggesting that nearly 80 percent of potential renewable resources outside of California will require some form of new transmission infrastructure.&nbsp;</p><p>Third, a grid architecture of an expanded EIM coupled with DSOs will be a more cost-effective and efficient approach to non-generation flexibility. Sophisticated distribution-grid management -- with new technologies such as fast autonomous demand response, energy storage, local generation, and distribution monitoring, communications, and control (MC<sup>2</sup>) -- will allow shaping of load profiles to make the entire transmission grid easier to manage and more reliable, reducing reliance on distant generation.</p><p>Furthermore, local renewables and DER provide an&nbsp;<a href="http://www.clean-coalition.org/our-work/community-microgrids/" target="_blank">unparalleled level of community resilience</a>. By dealing with the “ducklings” at the distribution level, DSOs will address many issues that gave rise to the drive for an integrated RTO. This combination will give grid managers a wider range of tools for cost-effectively balancing load with generation, as well as voltage and frequency on California’s grid.</p><p>Such a combined approach will also&nbsp;<a href="http://www.clean-coalition.org/our-work/community-microgrids/alternatives-to-gas-peaker-plants/puente-ellwood/" target="_blank">save ratepayers money</a>, and potentially more than an expanded RTO-managed market. For example, CAISO’s SB 350 analysis shows that 3,000 megawatts of energy storage can provide half the flexibility savings that an RTO could. By comparison, the state already has some 4.3 gigawatts of storage --&nbsp;<a href="https://www.energystorageexchange.org/" target="_blank">roughly 575 megawatts of which is newly added batteries</a>. With energy storage installations ramping up at year-on-year growth rates of over 40 percent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/research/report/us-energy-storage-monitor-2017-year-in-review">or more</a> and 1.35 gigawatts of outstanding energy storage mandates, the market will easily hit that target by 2021.&nbsp;</p><p>Ultimately, the combination of the TAC fix, an expanded EIM, and DSOs provides an alternative approach to grid flexibility with limited new transmission investment and substantial savings for California ratepayers. This approach also avoids the risks of surrendering California’s governance authority to an entity that may or may not share the state’s vision for a renewable future that is stacked with DER. With greater benefits and lower risks, fixing the TAC and expanding the EIM and distribution management is the better choice for California’s energy future.</p><p>***</p><p><em>Doug Karpa is the policy director and Craig Lewis is the executive director for the Clean Coalition, a nonprofit organization with a mission to accelerate the transition to renewable energy and a modern grid.</em></p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=Pi3cxjgQYvU:CANMQzRECPc:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=Pi3cxjgQYvU:CANMQzRECPc:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=Pi3cxjgQYvU:CANMQzRECPc:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=Pi3cxjgQYvU:CANMQzRECPc:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=Pi3cxjgQYvU:CANMQzRECPc:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=Pi3cxjgQYvU:CANMQzRECPc:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=Pi3cxjgQYvU:CANMQzRECPc:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/Pi3cxjgQYvU" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/expanding-energy-imbalance-market-right-way-to-regionalize-california Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-102422922510317892018-03-13T06:48:00.001-07:002018-03-13T06:48:23.042-07:00The Stars Are Finally Aligning for Residential Storage [GTM Squared]<div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=9lntqvGnpyU:0RVX59h8Eys:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=9lntqvGnpyU:0RVX59h8Eys:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=9lntqvGnpyU:0RVX59h8Eys:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=9lntqvGnpyU:0RVX59h8Eys:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=9lntqvGnpyU:0RVX59h8Eys:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=9lntqvGnpyU:0RVX59h8Eys:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=9lntqvGnpyU:0RVX59h8Eys:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/9lntqvGnpyU" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-stars-are-finally-aligning-for-residential-storage Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-70261598695292617112018-03-13T05:23:00.001-07:002018-03-13T05:23:27.387-07:00Google and Microsoft Are Shaping Energy Markets<p>Since 2015, large corporations have signed deals for more than <a href="http://businessrenewables.org/corporate-transactions/" target="_blank">7 gigawatts</a> of renewable energy.&nbsp;</p><p>As activity picks up, these companies are grappling with increasingly complex deals. They're no longer just thinking about renewable energy credits or average consumption over the year; they're now looking at matching wind, solar and hydro supply directly with their on-site demand in a more granular way. Consequently, energy storage is becoming more attractive.</p><p>This week, we're talking with two leading buyers of renewable energy, Google and Microsoft.</p><p>We'll talk with Neha Palmer, Google's head of energy strategy, about hitting 100 percent renewable energy. Then, we'll talk with Brian Janous, Microsoft's general manager of energy, about how deals around the world are structured.</p><p>We'll also grapple with a bigger question that corporate buyers are facing: what happens to their procurement when the gigawatts and gigawatts of renewables they’re buying literally reshape how markets function?</p><p><iframe scrolling="no" src="https://art19.com/shows/b4df7c16-a169-4be5-8bfa-6dbb20a74f6d/episodes/2dd0e7dd-2533-4cf6-8109-6ea6fa9cb50a/embed" style="width: 100%; height: 200px; border: 0 none;"></iframe></p><p><em>This podcast is also brought to you by&nbsp;Shoals, the gold standard for solar and storage balance-of-systems solutions.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.shoals.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Learn more</a>&nbsp;about how Shoals can make your project operate at the highest level.</em></p><p><em>This podcast is brought to you by&nbsp;Fiveworx, a turnkey customer engagement platform for utilities.&nbsp;</em><a href="http://fiveworx.com/theinterchange" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><em>Find out more</em></a><em>&nbsp;about how&nbsp;Fiveworx&nbsp;can help your customer engagement program succeed -- and get you beyond the meter.</em></p><p>Recommended reading:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-latest-trends-in-corporate-renewable-energy-procurement#gs.5eHz2p0" target="_blank">GTM</a>: The Latest Trends in Corporate Renewable Energy Procurement</li><li><a href="https://www.blog.google/topics/environment/100-percent-renewable-energy/" target="_blank">Google</a>:&nbsp;We’re Set to Reach 100% Renewable Energy -- and It’s Just the Beginning</li><li><a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/environment/energy" target="_blank">Microsoft</a>:&nbsp;Transitioning to Zero-Carbon Energy</li></ul><p><em>Subscribe to&nbsp;</em>The Interchange<em>&nbsp;podcast via&nbsp;<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-interchange/id1221460035?mt=2" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen#/ps/Irjvuwpced3xvf7yd46j4qu2yui" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google Play</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-interchange" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a>&nbsp;or wherever you find your audio content.</em></p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=8AybCLzPJqY:NGc8wDs1LgU:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=8AybCLzPJqY:NGc8wDs1LgU:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=8AybCLzPJqY:NGc8wDs1LgU:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=8AybCLzPJqY:NGc8wDs1LgU:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=8AybCLzPJqY:NGc8wDs1LgU:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=8AybCLzPJqY:NGc8wDs1LgU:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=8AybCLzPJqY:NGc8wDs1LgU:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/8AybCLzPJqY" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/google-and-microsoft-are-shaping-energy-markets Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-62249978211196305402018-03-12T17:08:00.001-07:002018-03-12T17:08:31.519-07:00Elon Musk: Humanity Is Pretending Fossil Fuels Have ‘No Probability of a Bad Outcome’<p>Elon Musk made a surprise appearance at South by South West on Sunday where he discussed a wide range of topics, from colonizing Mars to the risks artificial intelligence to tough times at Tesla and SpaceX.</p><p>He also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2iSw6L2NyU" target="_blank">danced</a> to his brother Kimbal Musk playing "My Little Buttercup," chatted about nuclear war and, amid all of that, he called for a price on carbon.</p><p>Sustainable energy is "obviously really important” to the future of humanity, Musk said in a conversation with Jonathan Nolan, co-creator of the HBO show Westworld.</p><p>Musk believes clean energy solutions have reached a point where they're technologically viable, and distorted market conditions are the primary thing holding them back.</p><p>"The core technologies are there with wind, solar, with batteries," Musk said.&nbsp;"The fundamental problem is there's an unpriced externality in the cost of CO2."</p><p>"The market economics work very well if things are priced correctly,” he continued. “But when things are not priced correctly and something that has a real cost has zero cost, then that's where you get distortions in the market that inhibit the progress of other technologies."</p><p>Anything that puts carbon into the atmosphere should be subject to a carbon price, “which includes rockets by the way -- so I'm not excluding rockets from this,” said Musk. The price can start low, but may need to be adjusted depending on whether or not it effectively reduces carbon emissions.</p><p>"In the absence of a price, we sort of pretend that digging trillions of tons of fossil fuels from deep under the Earth and putting it into the atmosphere-- we're pretending that that has no probability of a bad outcome,” he said, adding that it’s up to people and their governments to make carbon pricing happen.</p><p>Musk pointed out in a matter-of-fact tone that there's a chance humanity returns to the dark ages at some point in the future, which is what’s driving his work on sustainable energy and space travel.</p><p>"We want to make sure there's enough of a seed of human civilization somewhere else to bring civilization back and, perhaps, shorten the length of the dark ages," said Musk.</p><p>To do that, it’s important to develop a “self-sustaining base” on the moon or, ideally, on Mars, he said. So it’s no coincidence that SpaceX is in the midst of building the first reusable interplanetary spaceship capable of traveling there.</p><p>Scientists have warned for years that climate change could result in unsustainable living conditions on Earth. Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking believes humans will have to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/stephen-hawking-leave-earth-2446264918.html" target="_blank">leave the planet</a> in order to survive. Musk has warned of the <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-outlined-two-critical-things-threatening-humanity/" target="_blank">dangers climate change</a> presents too.&nbsp;</p><p>In his SXSW talk, which took place as news swirled around U.S. negotiations with North Korea, Musk warned that the next dark age could be brought on by World War III. However, the greatest existential threat facing humanity isn't climate change or even a war, in his view: it's artificial intelligence.&nbsp;</p><p>The businessman said he isn’t typically a proponent of regulation, but in the case of AI there needs to be some kind of government oversight body to ensure that everyone is developing it safely.</p><p>No one would allow just anyone to build nuclear warheads, he said. "That would be insane."</p><p>"And mark my words, AI is far more dangerous than nukes."</p><p>On the positive side, Musk predicted AI would enable self-driving vehicle technology to encompass all modes of driving by the end of 2019, and that autonomous driving will be 100 percent to 200 percent safer than when a human is in control. The difficult piece is making sure AI isn’t used in nefarious ways.</p><p>"We have to figure out some way to ensure that the advent of digital super-intelligence is one which is symbiotic with humanity,” he said. “I think that's the single biggest existential crisis that we face, and the most pressing one."</p><p>While his SXSW talk was wide-ranging, Musk said that around 90 percent of his time is spent working on engineering and design at Tesla and SpaceX, with most other business decisions left to other executives.</p><p>Both companies are alive only “by the skin of their teeth,” he noted.</p><p>In 2008, the billionaire said he only had around $30 to $40 million left to his name and was forced to decide whether to invest in one company and let the other one die, or split the money between the two and risk both of them failing.</p><p>“If things went a little bit the other way, both companies would be dead,” Musk said. “When you put blood, sweat, and tears into something, it’s like a child. Am I going to let one starve to death? I couldn’t do it, so I split the money between the two. Fortunately, they both pulled through.”</p><p>Both companies also have a lot still to prove.&nbsp;</p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=shNjW86AMT8:eAT0A7bJ-og:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=shNjW86AMT8:eAT0A7bJ-og:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=shNjW86AMT8:eAT0A7bJ-og:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=shNjW86AMT8:eAT0A7bJ-og:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=shNjW86AMT8:eAT0A7bJ-og:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=shNjW86AMT8:eAT0A7bJ-og:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=shNjW86AMT8:eAT0A7bJ-og:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/shNjW86AMT8" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/elon-musk-fossil-fuels-carbon-price-sxsw Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-63476010760098268242018-03-12T13:58:00.001-07:002018-03-12T13:58:25.419-07:00Engie Advances ‘Energy Transition’ Plan With Major Stake in Electro Power Systems<p>Engie last week made official its agreement to acquire a majority stake in Electro Power Systems (EPS), a French-based energy storage and microgrid company with projects in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>The acquisition aligns with a strategy Engie announced in 2016 “to become leader of the world energy transition.” The EPS deal, originally announced in January, kicks off the last leg of Engie's three-year, $12.5 billion investment plan.&nbsp;</p><p>"It's a full 3D vision. D as 'Decarbonization.' D as 'Decentralization.' And D as ‘Digitalization,’” Thierry Lepercq, executive vice president at&nbsp;ENGIE&nbsp;in charge of research, technology and Innovation, told Greentech Media in early 2017. The EPS investment is the latest indication of this vision becoming a reality.</p><p>The purchase also reaffirms a several-year trend of large energy companies, <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/european-utility-giants-are-on-a-grid-edge-shopping-spree-in-2017">especially in Europe</a>, pouring money into customer energy management.&nbsp;</p><p>"As of right now, building out a distributed practice for these European energy giants will not result into a multi-billion dollar business in the near term," said GTM Research grid edge analyst Elta Kolo. "Rather, acquisitions and large investments are expected to continue throughout 2018 as these energy giants seek to remain on top of emerging activity at the grid edge and in tune with where competitors are concentrating."</p><p><img alt="" class="modal" src="/content/images/articles/Energy_Giants_Are_Investing_in_Customer_Energy_Management.png" style="max-width: 100%;" /></p><p>EPS joins the Engie portfolio at €9,5 ($11.70) per share and joins recent solar additions&nbsp;<a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/engies-fenix-acquisition-boost-energy-access">Fenix International</a> and <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/engie-north-america-acquires-socore-in-strategic-play-at-commercial-solar">SoCore</a> and 2016 acquisitions including OpTerra, Ecova, and Green Charge, which have been <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-disappearing-cleantech-brands-of-2018#gs.7VW9hcM">rebranded under Engie</a>. The French utility said it will continue to list EPS shares.&nbsp;</p><p>Kolo said that after a spate of acquisitions and investments, 2018 will be a big year for consolidation. Companies are also likely to continue eyeing investments and acquisitions in energy storage, e-mobility, demand response, energy efficiency, smart home and residential retail spaces.</p><p>In speaking with Greentech Media in 2017, Lepercq noted that incorporating already-established companies into the fold allows Engie to innovate while maintaining a conservative utility-minded approach to change.&nbsp;</p><p>“If you're working with existing companies, you're working with established teams that have established businesses. … It’s fundamentally different than taking pure technology players and starting from scratch,” he said. “We're combining a bold move with a solid approach to business.”</p><p>Engie's recent investments fit concretely within <a href="https://innovation.engie.com/en/engie-tomorrow" target="_blank">its mission</a> to provide global energy solutions in its verticals of sustainable mobility, decentralized energy communities, smart buildings, 100 percent clean energy “territories,” hydrogen and energy storage. The utility has also <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/engie-strategy/engie-to-boost-growth-in-2018-investment-plan-nearly-complete-idUKL8N1PA47S" target="_blank">outlined increased interest</a> in investing in projects outside Europe.&nbsp;</p><p>Buying into EPS helps Engie with both of those goals.&nbsp;</p><p>“By targeting a company that is focused on the low-hanging fruit of replacing expensive diesel with clean energy in remote areas, you can get more carbon bang for your investment buck,” said Colleen Metelitsa, a GTM Research grid edge analyst. “Engie also seems to be targeting a diverse range of technologies, across storage, microgrids, EV charging, energy billing and more. This diversified portfolio allows them to hedge their bets on where they think the biggest growth in green energy might be.”</p><p>EPS specializes in transitioning intermittent renewable and fossil fuel systems to more permanent and sustainable solutions. Of the 36 megawatts of microgrid generation capacity in EPS’s portfolio, 70 percent is in the Asian Pacific and 23 percent is in Africa. Its major projects include a 12-megawatt microgrid installation in Australia -- including 3 megawatts peak of solar PV, 2 megawatts of wind, and 1 megawatt of battery storage -- and a “Hybrid Energy Storage System” in Bosnia that provides fast-charging for electric vehicles.&nbsp;</p><p>“We share Engie’s strategic vision of a paradigm shift in the energy system towards decentralized energy solutions: in advanced economies renewables are displacing conventional centralized power plants, calling for distributed energy storage to secure flexibility and capacity. ... In parallel, in emerging economies, storage-enabled renewables open a market of 2.4 billion people reliant on diesel generation,” said Carlalberto Guglielminotti, EPS’s CEO and General manager, in a statement. “Our unique technological platform combined with Engie’s global reach, establishes a driving force of the energy transition.”</p><p>According to Metelitsa, large energy companies throwing money into the microgrid world could also be a big help in a landscape where funding has <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/big-money-is-getting-into-microgrids">at times proved elusive</a> because of the difficulty of scaling the technology. Kolo, too, said she expects acquisitions and consolidations to allow companies to expand their business using the platforms of the large energy companies that buy in.&nbsp;</p><p>“What Engie, and all these energy giants bring, are large balance sheets, which can be critically important in helping project developers scale,” said Metelitsa. “Financing for remote and island microgrids can be more difficult than campus-level financing because there is more counter-party risk. If Engie can help provide capital for construction costs, you can really lower the cost of capital in building and be more cost competitive.”</p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=q-KhyZJqXxg:UgEHZ9YEK5U:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=q-KhyZJqXxg:UgEHZ9YEK5U:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=q-KhyZJqXxg:UgEHZ9YEK5U:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=q-KhyZJqXxg:UgEHZ9YEK5U:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=q-KhyZJqXxg:UgEHZ9YEK5U:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=q-KhyZJqXxg:UgEHZ9YEK5U:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=q-KhyZJqXxg:UgEHZ9YEK5U:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/q-KhyZJqXxg" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/engie-investment-strategy-closes-electro-power-systems Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-91775229264320528102018-03-12T13:43:00.001-07:002018-03-12T13:43:38.925-07:00E.ON and RWE Merger to Create New European Giants in Renewables and Retail Energy<p>E.ON and RWE have proposed to reshuffle their business units in a complex mega-merger for Germany’s two dominant utilities, as they seek to adapt to the continent’s renewable-powered future.</p><p>As first reported by <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-11/eon-agrees-to-buy-rwe-s-innogy-upending-german-utility-industry" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a>, E.ON is seeking acquire all 76.8 percent of RWE’s majority stake in Innogy, the company it created in 2015 from its <a href="http://www.apple.com">renewable generation, grid and energy retail</a>&nbsp;businesses across Europe. E.ON would subsequently return the renewable energy portion of Innogy, along with its own renewable energy assets, or 16.7 percent of its equity, back to RWE.&nbsp;</p><p><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-11/after-years-of-energy-chaos-giant-deal-gives-germany-a-champion" target="_blank">Shares surged</a> after the announcement. However, the deal still needs the approval of each company’s supervisory board.&nbsp;</p><p>The deal values Innogy at about €22 billion ($27.1 billion), although the amount may be nearly double when debt and other enterprise value is taken into account, Bloomberg quoted a source with knowledge of the deal as saying. Cash exchanged includes about €5 billion ($6.2 billion) for E.ON to buy out Innogy’s minority shareholders, and RWE paying E.ON €1.5 billion ($1.85 billlion), with the rest of the deal valued in shares and asset swaps.</p><p>But the heart of the agreement is to give E.ON the retail and network businesses of both companies, and RWE the combined renewable-generation businesses. This move would transform both companies, giving RWE a combined share in wind power second only to Iberdrola in Europe, and giving E.ON a share of the retail market that could raise anti-trust implications in Germany, where the two companies are already dominant players, and in the UK, where they are two of the six biggest retailers.&nbsp;</p><p>Innogy’s fiscal year 2017 earnings forecast <a href="https://news.innogy.com/en/fy-2017/" target="_blank">released Monday</a>&nbsp;did not mention the coming deal. But it did note that the company's grid business has been the main driver of 2017 earnings growth, up 14&nbsp;percent to €1.9 billion ($2.4 billion), while the renewables division projects adjusted&nbsp;earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) to fall 1&nbsp;per&nbsp;cent to €355&nbsp;million ($438 million), and retail earnings to fall 5&nbsp;per&nbsp;cent year on year, to €800&nbsp;million ($987 million).&nbsp;</p><p>The company is projecting overall adjusted EBIT of about €2.7 billion ($3.3 billion) and adjusted&nbsp;net&nbsp;income of over €1.1 billion ($1.36 billion).<strong>&nbsp;</strong></p><p>Innogy&nbsp;sold 11.3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in the just-completed fiscal year, up 5 percent from 2016. Of this, 10.2 billion kilowatt-hours came from renewables -- 74 percent from onshore and offshore wind, 24 percent from run-of-river power stations, and 2 percent from biomass and solar PV plants. Fossil fuel still makes up about 10 percent of its capacity.</p><p>E.ON and RWE’s combined wind assets would put it just behind Iberdrola in terms of overall share in the Europe and Middle East (EMEA) market, compared to their seventh and sixth rankings today, according to Luke Lewandowski, analyst for Wood Mackenzie company MAKE Consulting. Innogy had been an investment target of interest for other European utilities including Engie, Enel and Iberdrola. Macquarie Group may acquire smaller businesses from the combined entity, including those in Eastern Europe -- a claim Macquarie declined to comment upon.&nbsp;</p><p>RWE and E.ON are making these massive reorganizations faced with the rise of wind and solar power in Germany and across Europe, which has undercut the markets and profits for fossil fuels and nuclear power plants. The Fukushima meltdown disaster in Japan prompted&nbsp;German Chancellor Angela Merkel to close the country’s nuclear power fleet by decade’s end.</p><p>Both companies have taken billions of euros in write downs for those assets in the past several years, pushing RWE to create Innogy, and E.ON to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/germanys-biggest-utility-is-divesting-from-centralized-power">spin off its fossil fuel power</a> plants, in the form of Uniper. E.ON is in the midst of selling a 47-percent stake in its Uniper subsidiary to Finland-based utility Fortum.&nbsp;</p><p>The two companies have been active investors in renewable and distributed energy technologies. RWE launched a <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/rwe-builds-venture-fund-for-clean-tech">$144 million strategic venture capital fund</a> in 2016, while its energy trading arm has invested in behind-the-meter battery startup <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/stem-lands-80-million-to-fuel-its-growing-behind-the-meter-battery-business#gs.kDgs78A">Stem</a>. Innogy has invested in organic solar cell startup <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/heliatek-raises-90m-from-eu-investors-for-roll-to-roll-organic-solar-cells#gs.dEKNvxs">Heliatek</a> and blockchain energy trading startup <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/power-ledger-blockchain-energy-trading-startup-raises-17-cryptocurrency">Power Ledger</a>, and both Innogy and E.ON have invested in energy disaggregation startup <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/bidgely-raises-27m-to-scale-its-energy-disaggregation-for-utilities">Bidgely</a>. E.ON has invested in utility software startup <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/autogrid-lands-12-75m-round-with-e-on-as-strategic-investor">AutoGrid</a>, energy data analytics and visualization software provider <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/blue-pillar-space-time-insight-raise-vc-and-strategic-cash-for-microgrids">Space-Time Insight</a>, and battery control software and integration startup <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/E-ON-Joins-AEP-in-18M-VC-Investment-in-Greensmith-to-Grow-Grid-Scale-Energ#gs.=c94pSM">Greensmith</a> (sold to Wartsila).</p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=ZblVzdSX8rs:b_jX9bc0Ucg:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=ZblVzdSX8rs:b_jX9bc0Ucg:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=ZblVzdSX8rs:b_jX9bc0Ucg:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=ZblVzdSX8rs:b_jX9bc0Ucg:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=ZblVzdSX8rs:b_jX9bc0Ucg:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=ZblVzdSX8rs:b_jX9bc0Ucg:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=ZblVzdSX8rs:b_jX9bc0Ucg:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/ZblVzdSX8rs" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/eon-rwe-merger-renewables-retail Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-21715205093517450042018-03-12T04:03:00.001-07:002018-03-12T04:03:14.194-07:00Sunrun Keeps Growing, While Prepping for a Whole New Grid Services Business<p>Sunrun has maintained growth and cash flow amid industry turbulence. And it’s done so while building out infrastructure to add future revenue streams to its rooftop solar business: energy storage and grid services.</p><p>In 2018, the rate of solar customers opting to add home batteries via Sunrun’s BrightBox package reached 20 percent in California. The company has expanded its offering to Hawaii, Arizona, Nevada, New York and, last week, to Massachusetts.</p><p>The firming ability of storage turns the company’s portfolio of rooftop solar installations into a far more valuable asset, and Sunrun is working to monetize that by bidding on grid services contracts with utilities; it has won a few already, and will hear back on more procurements throughout the year. This won’t bring in revenue immediately, but over the coming years, as the contracts enter into force.</p><p>Unlike some top-five residential installers, Sunrun might be around long enough to see those plans to fruition.</p><p>The <a href="http://investors.sunrun.com/news-releases/news-release-details/sunrun-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2017-financial" target="_blank">quarterly earnings</a> released last week revealed a cash-flow positive business with expectations of steady growth through the coming year. In 2017, Sunrun increased its deployments 15 percent year over year, from 282 megawatts to 323 megawatts.</p><p>Company executives expect to deliver another 15 percent deployment increase in 2018, and to grow cash generation even faster than that.</p><p>Total revenue grew by 17 percent or $75.8 million, yielding net income available to common stockholders of $124.5 million. That amounts to $1.15 per share in diluted net earnings available to common shareholders.</p><p>Sunrun’s stock price has rebounded from a four-month stretch at or below $6. In early February, it bumped up above $7, and has been hovering around there since.</p><h2>Weathering the storm</h2><p>Both solar tariffs and tax reform brought downsides for the residential solar industry in recent months.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/forecast-shows-how-tariffs-will-hurt-solar-growth-state-by-state#gs.BudE_zQ">White House’s 30 percent tariff</a> on imported solar modules will bring less disruption for the residential sector compared to tight-margin utility-scale projects, but it is still material.</p><p>The tax reform passed in December provided Sunrun a one-time benefit of $33 million, more fortuitous than developer First Solar, which had to pay <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/first-solar-suniva-trade-case-tariffs-earnings#gs.PcJN66U">upwards of $400 million</a> as a result. Long-term, the corporate tax cuts reduce the amount of available tax equity searching for a home in solar assets.</p><p>Each of those stresses will, in theory, reduce project value by about $0.10/watt. Compare that to the Sunrun’s record $1.22/watt unlevered net present value (project value minus creation costs) in the fourth quarter of 2017. All else held equal, tariffs and tax reform will send project value back to where it was a year ago.</p><p>Sunrun won’t hold all else equal; it will continue chasing cost reductions and cheaper sources of capital. In the end, the leadership expects net present value to stay above $1.00/watt in 2018.</p><p>Without federal interference in the competitive landscape, Sunrun could have posted even better unit economics. Instead, it must work to keep things steady in the face of external negative forces.</p><p>Looking ahead, Sunrun will face a different kind of headwind: actual competition from Tesla and Vivint.</p><p>The second and third largest installers shrank their deployments in recent quarters as they sought to improve profitability.</p><p>“It was a somewhat easier time for Sunrun to have a breakout year, given that Tesla and Vivint were struggling and there was market share to take,” said Alison Mond, solar analyst at GTM Research. “Both Tesla and Vivint are projecting a return to growth this year, though, which I believe will make it that much harder for Sunrun to continue to grow 15 percent again.”</p><h2>Weathering actual storms…with batteries</h2><p>Residential solar competition may heat back up, but Sunrun is striving to move beyond that particular market.</p><p>Solar-plus-storage has quickly moved from a minor add-on to a significant portion of the overall business. The rate of solar customers adopting storage in California has doubled roughly each quarter for the last three quarters.</p><p>For Sunrun, BrightBox amounts to a more valuable, higher margin product than standalone solar. But it also creates the opportunity to work with utilities on grid service contracts.</p><p>“Overall, if I look five years into the future, it wouldn’t surprise me if 80 percent of solar systems had battery storage,” Executive Chairman Ed Fenster said in an interview. “Change is going to happen much faster than people think, and the speed of battery deployments is going to surprise people.”</p><p>The rash of major storms and outages over the last year have only accentuated the customer benefit of clean backup power, he added.</p><p>“There are millions of people without power as we speak, in the Northeast,” he said.</p><p>The recent nor'easter accentuates the value proposition of BrightBox in Massachusetts. Sunrun has highlighted the resilience value, contrasting the battery system to “dirty, noisy diesel generators” that otherwise serve for backup.</p><p>That framing may be necessary to justify the $1,000 upfront cost that Sunrun is charging in Massachusetts, unlike in its other markets. The argument is that it's cheaper than a diesel genset, and then the customer gets electricity for three-quarters of the retail price. Still, the upfront charge changes the payback calculus compared to markets like California and Hawaii, where pro-storage policies offer more favorable economics.</p><p>The launch itself caps Sunrun’s efforts to work with regulators and policymakers to clear up permitting and interconnection rules so that the company feels confident entering the state.</p><p>The company also plans to wade into the state’s ongoing debate over how to procure clean energy, which is required by recent legislation.</p><p>The state’s choice of a massive, centralized transmission line from Quebec stalled when a New Hampshire regulator <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/new-hampshire-rejects-northern-pass#gs.SUS5K5I">denied a crucial construction permit</a>. Fenster positioned BrightBox as a localized antidote to permitting risk and transmission constraints associated with mass-scale projects.</p><p>“We can just build it and it’s going to be lower cost,” he said. “What customers want is reliable, affordable power, and we really believe distributed power is going to provide that better than centralized power and we’re pleased to be leading the effort there.”</p><h2>Grid services revenue expected</h2><p>In the call with investors, CEO Lynn Jurich teased that the move into grid services will eventually produce a “customer-created utility” that could tap into the $500 billion market cap of the 20 biggest utilities.</p><p>Grid services isn’t expected to add substantial revenue this year, though; instead, Sunrun is bidding on a large number of RFPs for grid services, Fenster said.</p><p>“We will start adding contracted revenue in the near term,” he noted.</p><p>The company got an <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/californias-dram-tops-200mw-as-utilities-pick-winners-for-distributed-energ#gs.U3OIArY">early win</a>&nbsp;for aggregated capacity in California's Demand Response Auction Mechanism last summer, as did Tesla.</p><p>Utilities typically award grid services contracts several years ahead of when the power is needed, so winning a bid won’t mean cash starts flowing immediately. However, if Sunrun locks down more contracts this year, it can count on years of contracted revenue streams in the future.</p><p>Having maintained steady growth through a period of industry upheavals, Sunrun has an opportunity to seize the first mover advantage in pursuing grid services in earnest.</p><p>“While Tesla and Vivint still need to work on figuring out the kinks in their solar businesses, Sunrun is able to focus its efforts on further strategic initiatives,” Mond said.</p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=nhRy_zhRRTs:EMYZFigHvhE:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=nhRy_zhRRTs:EMYZFigHvhE:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=nhRy_zhRRTs:EMYZFigHvhE:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=nhRy_zhRRTs:EMYZFigHvhE:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=nhRy_zhRRTs:EMYZFigHvhE:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=nhRy_zhRRTs:EMYZFigHvhE:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=nhRy_zhRRTs:EMYZFigHvhE:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/nhRy_zhRRTs" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/sunrun-keeps-growing-while-prepping-for-a-whole-new-business Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-36367612780831903612018-03-10T00:03:00.001-08:002018-03-10T00:03:19.699-08:00The Rise of Solar in the Southeast [GTM Squared]<div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=iKEl5WynNPU:58fo0H5FUJQ:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=iKEl5WynNPU:58fo0H5FUJQ:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=iKEl5WynNPU:58fo0H5FUJQ:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=iKEl5WynNPU:58fo0H5FUJQ:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=iKEl5WynNPU:58fo0H5FUJQ:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=iKEl5WynNPU:58fo0H5FUJQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=iKEl5WynNPU:58fo0H5FUJQ:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/iKEl5WynNPU" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-rise-of-solar-in-the-southeast Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-16751315733612062202018-03-09T03:18:00.001-08:002018-03-09T03:18:11.854-08:00The Disappearing Cleantech Brands of 2018<p>Start a company, pick a name and make it big -- that's the entrepreneurial dream.</p><p>But success more often comes in the form of acquisition, at which point the company's identity can vanish.</p><p>That has happened several times already this year, as recent corporate acquisitions proceed with their integrations.&nbsp;</p><p>Changing the name and its various manifestations -- building signs, business cards, company swag -- carries with it a sense of loss.</p><p>"There’s nostalgia with those things, and there’s a lot of history and good times," said Mark Triplett, COO at storage developer Green Charge, which recently became Engie Storage.</p><p>But the brand evolution also promises access to greater resources and name recognition. Engie is a multinational energy company, like Enel, which <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/italian-utility-enel-acquires-energy-storage-specialist-demand-energy#gs.23dDzLU">bought storage developer Demand Energy</a>&nbsp;last year.</p><p>"These were storage companies that had success, but in order to scale, a multinational brand is a huge benefit," said Brett Simon, energy storage analyst at GTM Research.</p><p>Here's a running guide to the cleantech names you won't be seeing around any more.</p><h2>Engie's triple play</h2><p>The French energy giant has made big moves into the U.S. cleantech space, and recently announced a rebrand.</p><p>Energy efficiency company OpTerra has become Engie Services; energy bill management firm Ecova became Engie Insight; and Green Charge became Engie Storage.</p><p>"The idea is to unify the understanding of the market: when they’re talking to an Engie company, it’s part of a deeper vision," Mathias Lelievre, CEO of Engie Insight, told GTM. "Our job is to help them figure out how they can lower their impact on the environment while striving and growing."</p><p>Engie's in-house competencies have expanded to full stack energy and sustainability services for large corporate clients, spanning solar, storage, energy efficiency, bill management, retail choice and energy trading.&nbsp;</p><p>Evidently unsatisfied with its acquisitions thus far, Engie this week <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/engie-north-america-acquires-socore-in-strategic-play-at-commercial-solar#gs.yIfs2VU">bought SoCore</a>, a commercial solar developer, from Edison International. This move gives Engie a bigger commercial solar pipeline and&nbsp;engineering, procurement and construction capabilities outside California. No word yet on how long the SoCore name will survive.</p><p>For Green Charge, the name change has material implications for how it does business.</p><p>Unlike independent C&amp;I storage companies Stem and AMS, Engie Storage enjoys the explicit backing of a massive global energy company with billions in annual revenues.</p><p>"Potential customers will be more inclined to work with a company bearing the Engie brand, which will be understood to have the backing of a trusted energy company with a large balance sheet," said Simon.</p><p>Since the acquisition, Green Charge has ventured into larger projects, with its <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/green-charge-utility-scale-storage-massachusetts#gs.0xr0dQE">first utility-scale deployment</a> heading to Holyoke, Massachusetts. The startup just didn't have the balance sheet or the resources to chase those deals before.</p><p>"It’s still a super small market," Triplett said. "There's still a lot of education to do and a lot of customers who don’t know the space, let alone who the players are."</p><p>Engie's international scope opens up the possibility of overseas storage development as well. And bulk procurement through the Engie brand means the storage team can access savings by procuring materials at higher volume.</p><h2>Enel Consolidates</h2><p>The scrappy New York area storage developers at Demand Energy will move away from that identity.&nbsp;</p><p>The company has rolled into EnerNOC, the demand response and energy service provider that Enel also <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/enel-to-buy-enernoc-for-250-million#gs.tPD5OmM">acquired last year for $250 million</a>. Demand Energy and EnerNOC's demand response business now operate as EnerNOC Flexibility Solutions.</p><p>This branding change is just an interim situation, however. In a few months, EnerNOC itself will join Enel X, the global energy company's new business designed to tackle future grid services, including electric mobility, storage-assisted energy optimization and distributed generation.</p><p>Like Engie, Enel has decided that storage alone isn't as useful as storage in combination with other energy services -- in this case, EnerNOC's demand-side management business.</p><h2>More than solar</h2><p>Those who track the shifting acronyms of energy industry groups, take note: the California Solar Energy Industries Association has changed. It's now the California Solar and Storage Association. CALSEIA is out, CALSSA is in.</p><p>That loss of a single syllable says something about the increasing presence of energy storage within California's solar industry. This is one of the few places in the U.S. where residential storage has started to gain traction, thanks to high electricity prices and that friendly Self-Generation Incentive Program.</p><p>The state is home to Tesla, Sunrun, Sonnen and pretty much anyone else working to popularize residential storage. And it has pioneered large scale storage, which will become even more valuable as solar penetration increases and curtailment rates rise. The old silos of solar and storage no longer make much sense here.</p><h2>A GTM —&gt; WMP&amp;R</h2><p>In the interest of completeness, we can't overlook changes afoot within the fence of Greentech Media.</p><p>The research team, along with the wind analysts at MAKE, will spend this year transitioning into a combined Wood Mackenzie Power &amp; Renewables brand. The goal is to combine WoodMac's power markets expertise with MAKE's wind knowledge and GTM Research's solar, storage and grid edge capabilities, to provide a holistic understanding of the evolving energy system.</p><p>The GTM brand will persist for news and events, so there's no need to change your favorite bookmarked&nbsp;URL.</p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=ZVPDM3ViZIU:ggQ_UNpndSg:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=ZVPDM3ViZIU:ggQ_UNpndSg:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=ZVPDM3ViZIU:ggQ_UNpndSg:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=ZVPDM3ViZIU:ggQ_UNpndSg:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=ZVPDM3ViZIU:ggQ_UNpndSg:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=ZVPDM3ViZIU:ggQ_UNpndSg:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=ZVPDM3ViZIU:ggQ_UNpndSg:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/ZVPDM3ViZIU" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-disappearing-cleantech-brands-of-2018 Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-33909577865248141112018-03-08T15:18:00.001-08:002018-03-08T15:18:25.910-08:00Trump’s Steel, Aluminum Tariffs Create ‘Another Headache’ for Renewables<p>President Trump dealt a blow to the U.S. renewable energy industry Thursday in approving new tariffs on imported steel and aluminum.</p><p>Aggressive foreign trade practices are an "assault on our country," the president said, before signing a Section 232 proclamation that slaps a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum.</p><p>Factories have been left to rust, communities have turned into ghost towns, and U.S. national security has been undermined, said Trump. "Now we're finally taking action to correct this long-overdue problem."</p><p>While steel company CEOs say tariffs will <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/05/tariffs-absolutely-will-bring-back-jobs-to-america-steel-ceo.html" target="_blank">bring back American jobs</a>, numerous trade experts, industry groups, politicians and even members of the <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/06/news/companies/aluminum-association-tariffs/index.html" target="_blank">aluminum industry</a> argue tariffs won't revitalize U.S. manufacturing and could harm other segments of the economy in the process. The clean energy industry is one of those segments.&nbsp;</p><p>"Steel and aluminum are important commodities for critical wind, solar and storage components, with few bankable substitute materials available," Wood Mackenzie Power and Renewables analysts write in a forthcoming research note.</p><p>GTM Research, MAKE Consulting and Wood Mackenzie collectively calculate the resulting price increase in commodities could result in a 3 percent to 5 percent increase in the levelized cost of energy for U.S. renewable power plants, leading to slightly lowered forecasts for project deployments or slightly lowered project returns.</p><p>"While the broader impacts are unknowable, the tariffs will have a direct impact on renewable component costs, both in the form of increases in general electrical products (e.g., wiring, transformers) and in critical components including: wind turbine towers, solar ground mount posts and tracker torque tubes and battery system housing containers," the note states.</p><p>Given the new tariffs are coupled with already pressured margins, an existing Section 201 tariff on solar modules, the planned step-down of the solar Investment Tax Credit and the wind Production Tax Credit, and the potential withdrawal of tax equity as the result of tax reform, analysts write that "the Section 232 tariffs represent yet another headache to mitigate or absorb for renewables."</p><h2>Tariff flexibility for U.S. "friends"</h2><p>According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), steel and aluminum tariffs could add <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/steel-aluminum-tariffs-could-add-2-cents-per-watt-to-utility-scale-solar#gs.aNzpuns">2 cents per watt</a> to utility-scale solar projects, which is a significant increase on top of "job-killing" solar tariffs.</p><p>President Trump said at Thursday's signing ceremony that solar tariffs have brought back U.S. solar manufacturing plants. However, there is <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/trump-claims-solar-tariffs-are-reopening-plants-except-they-arent">still no evidence</a> of a market resurgence.</p><p>“As President Trump prepares to issue an official decision on tariffs for steel and aluminum products, we want to remind him that the net loss of jobs and the cancellation of projects as a result of his solar tariffs are real and causing damage to America’s energy economy," said Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA president and CEO, in a Wednesday statement.</p><p>"There has been very little interest in building substantial new solar manufacturing capacity as a result of solar tariffs," she said. "The actual number of jobs added because of solar tariffs will be negligible under the best of circumstances."</p><p>It's possible the impact of the new steel and aluminum tariffs will be softened by ongoing trade negotiations, however.&nbsp;</p><p>"We have to protect and build our steel and aluminum industries, while at the same time showing great flexibility and cooperation to those who are friends of ours," Trump said at the signing ceremony.</p><p>Canada and Mexico were excluded from the tariffs, while parties continue to discuss changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement. But if the negotiations are unsuccessful, Trump indicated that steel and aluminum tariffs would be placed on America's neighbors, too.&nbsp;</p><p>The U.S. will remain open to modifying or removing tariffs for other nations, Trump added, as long as they aren't deemed a threat to national security and damaging to American jobs. Trading partners and allies, like Australia, will be given strong consideration.</p><p>"We will see who is treating us fairly who is not treating us fairly,” said the president. That assessment includes how much allies are or are not spending on their militaries and to help maintain global stability.</p><p>U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will be leading the review process before the tariffs take effect 15 days from Thursday.</p><h2>A "mirror tax" for Tesla?</h2><p>As the implementation of steel and aluminum tariffs gets underway, Trump said there will additional trade action to come. He specifically cited a tweet from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, in which the tech leader noted that an American-made vehicle going to China has to pay a 25 percent import duty, while a Chinese car coming to the U.S. only pays a 2.5 percent duty.</p><p>"We raised this with the prior administration and nothing happened," <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/971815058475921408" target="_blank">Musk tweeted</a>. "Just want a fair outcome, ideally where tariffs/rules are equally moderate. Nothing more. Hope this does not seem unreasonable."</p><p>Trump responded to Musk today in promising to enact a "reciprocal tax program" or a "mirror tax" at some point in the near future. Under that arrangement, the U.S. would impose the same duty level on another country that that country imposes on the U.S.</p><p>“We’re going to be doing a lot of that," Trump said.</p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=vRysxdFojWo:dlcITXQvC8M:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=vRysxdFojWo:dlcITXQvC8M:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=vRysxdFojWo:dlcITXQvC8M:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=vRysxdFojWo:dlcITXQvC8M:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=vRysxdFojWo:dlcITXQvC8M:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=vRysxdFojWo:dlcITXQvC8M:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=vRysxdFojWo:dlcITXQvC8M:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/vRysxdFojWo" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/steel-aluminum-tariffs-renewables-elon-musk Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-89331510640968443742018-03-08T05:03:00.001-08:002018-03-08T05:03:53.281-08:00Green Energy Colonialism? Local Experts Left Out of Puerto Rico’s Post-Hurricane Energy Planning<p>At an early December <a href="http://caribbeanbusiness.com/puerto-rico-board-sets-dates-for-11th-meeting-3rd-listening-session/" target="_blank">listening session</a> hosted by Puerto Rico’s federally-appointed fiscal management board, University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez professor Marcel Castro Sitiriche was set to testify on the island’s education system.&nbsp;</p><p>Castro Sitiriche, a professor of electrical engineering, was there on behalf of his campus’s professors association. As he stood among the crowd gathered at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in New York City, he spoke about the future of his university, but he also criticized conflicts of interest he perceives among members of the fiscal board.&nbsp;</p><p>Rather than endure Castro Sitiriche’s remarks, he said meeting managers simply turned off his microphone.&nbsp;</p><p>“It’s ironic they called it a listening session,” he said.</p><p>It wasn’t the first time professors had <a href="http://caribbeanbusiness.com/university-of-puerto-rico-professors-seek-to-nullify-government-fiscal-plan/" target="_blank">publicly criticized</a> the fiscal management board. But Castro Sitiriche said that incident -- which the board did not confirm -- smacks of larger issues at work in Puerto Rico. Castro Sitiriche and other Puerto Rican professors who specialize in energy and sustainability told Greentech Media they feel sidelined in conversations about the future of Puerto Rico’s grid.</p><p>The island remains in a dire energy crisis -- about <a href="https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2018/03/f49/Hurricanes%20Maria%20%20Irma%20Event%20Summary%20March%207,%202018.pdf" target="_blank">10 percent</a> of customers still live without electricity more than five months after the devastating hurricanes -- and Governor Ricardo Rosselló plans to <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/puerto-ricos-utility-moves-towards-privatization-but-struggles-persist-in-b">privatize the island's utility company</a> and sell off its assets. The energy commission <a href="http://caribbeanbusiness.com/energy-commission-sues-to-reassert-regulatory-power-over-puerto-rico-electric-utility/" target="_blank">filed a lawsuit</a> this week against the fiscal board to assert its regulatory control over the utility. At the same time, a swath of mainland and international clean energy and construction companies are pouring into Puerto Rico with promises to remake the energy system as a renewables-dominant model that could act as a test case for the rest of the globe.&nbsp;</p><p>It’s the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/for-investors-puerto-rico-is-a-fantasy-blank-slate/" target="_blank">“blank slate”</a> point-of-view that strikes many professors as problematic, at a time when the expertise of academics who have studied Puerto Rico’s electric system for decades is more important than ever.&nbsp;</p><p>“Maria brought a whole new set of stakeholders from outside, like Tesla and FEMA, or Governor Cuomo,” said Marla Pérez Lugo, an environmental sociologist at UPR-Mayagüez. “All of those are right now putting their hands into energy policy in Puerto Rico.”</p><p>Aside from a few researchers who have managed to break into talks, Pérez Lugo said, “we have not been able to get into the conversation.”</p><p>Instead, they’ve resorted to submitting comments via public processes and speaking with members of the media in hopes that their views will be disseminated or considered in policymaking.</p><p>“There is not a lot of institutional involvement of the university in policymaking at all,” said Pérez Lugo.&nbsp;</p><p>“In energy in particular,” added Cecilio Ortiz García, a professor at UPR-Mayagëz that focuses on public policy and energy policy. He is also Pérez Lugo’s husband.&nbsp;</p><p>Professors including Pérez Lugo and Ortiz García founded the Instituto Nacional de Energía y Sostenibilidad Isleña (INESI) in 2015 to change that. A coalition of energy-focused faculty members at the island’s universities, INESI fosters collaboration among researchers, encourages policy dialogue, and promotes sustainable community energy projects.&nbsp;</p><p>But even with that coalition, and the comments and plans professors have submitted officially and unofficially, Pérez Lugo and Ortiz García said academics have largely gone unheard in post-Maria decision-making.&nbsp;</p><p>“Much more needs to be done by the territorial government to not only listen to, but also to integrate fully the concerns, insights, and experiences of local energy studies scholars, such as those from INESI,” said Catalina de Onís, a rhetorical studies scholar and professor at Willamette University who recently published a journal <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2018.00002/full" target="_blank">article on energy colonialism</a> in post-Maria Puerto Rico.&nbsp;</p><p>“Without these non-governmental leaders, a just transition to decentralized, renewable, and sustainable energy systems that re-imagines power -- both in terms of electricity and human relationships -- will not be achieved.”</p><h2>“Party Cronyism”</h2><p>Academics attribute some of their exclusion to historic precedent.&nbsp;</p><p>“I do not think any government, not only the present government, has really paid much attention to the impact or advice from either UPR or other academic institutions,” said Efraín O’Neill Carrillo, a professor of electrical engineering at UPR-Mayagüez.&nbsp;</p><p>According to Ortiz García, “extreme party cronyism” sows distrust within the government about academic research.</p><p>“If you are not a recognized member of a political party, when that party is in power you will not be called for anything,” said Ortiz García. Castro Sitiriche said that the regional government and governor’s office is generally wary of including “independent judgment from scholars unaffiliated with parties.&nbsp;</p><p>But post-Maria, Ortiz García said that criticism doesn’t apply to local government. While academics believe coordination between the fiscal board, the governor, and other stakeholders is lacking, Ortiz García sees the reputation of the island’s mayors as improved.&nbsp;</p><p>He cited San Sebastián, where the municipal government formed the Pepino Power Authority, a group of resident electricians who strung wires instead of continuing to wait for federal help. And San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz is largely recognized as among the most vocal advocates for Puerto Rico’s needs.&nbsp;</p><p>Founding INESI member Agustín Irizarry Rivera, another professor of electrical engineering at UPR-Mayagüez, said local politicians tend to take advantage of academic expertise more than other levels of government. But he said interest is still lacking from authorities.</p><p>“This administration never touches base with the university,” he said. “All their experts must come from the [mainland] U.S. We don’t have much opportunity to work with them, despite being willing and able.”</p><h2>Disaster Capitalism</h2><p>Government has, however, been willing to work with stakeholders across the mainland United States, including utilities and clean energy companies like Tesla.&nbsp;</p><p>Irizarry Rivera said the steady flow of corporate interest in Puerto Rico’s plight has been the same story for decades. de Onís calls it “green capitalism” and she worries it could perpetuate the colonial “outsider-knows-best” ideology that has long dogged the island.&nbsp;</p><p>“Every disaster is an opportunity for people to make business, right?” said Irizarry Rivera. “I’ve seen a lot of people coming in. They show up at our door saying they have a gift for us. You have to be wary.”</p><p>All the professors Greentech Media spoke with echoed that skepticism.&nbsp;</p><p>“There are all sorts of approaches. There are some savvy, more corporate-type organizations and individuals and there are some that mix that with actual genuine desire to help,” said Ortiz García. “In business those things are not mutually exclusive.”</p><p>Several academics said they’re grateful for help from mainland companies, and think that many are doing good work. But they’ve also seen the island taken advantage of, and remain concerned that many newcomers aren’t taking the time to understand the social, political, or geographic contexts integral to addressing the island’s needs. It doesn’t help matters that many meetings and hearings concerning the future of the island are held in New York or Washington D.C.</p><p>Data compiled by Pérez Lugo’s students showed that most of the 22 energy projects they identified in response to Hurricane Maria were concentrated in a few areas, and there wasn’t a relationship between their location and the vulnerability of the grid. “There is no coordination among them either,” said Pérez Lugo.&nbsp;</p><p>But Pérez Lugo doesn’t place all the blame on companies looking to make a buck. She said a skewed portrait from the mainland press has also contributed to opportunism and disregard for the social, political and historic landscape of Puerto Rico.</p><p>“When these groups and companies come to the island expecting a blank slate, and they find out eventually that there are forces inside the energy policy environment, it’s hard for them to overcome,” said Pérez Lugo. “But they are coming with the wrong assumptions.”</p><p>That could create unexpected challenges for the very technologies that many companies are hoping to prove.&nbsp;</p><p>“If you take any technology and implement it in the wrong way, without considering the social or environmental context, it can be damaging,” said O’Neill Carrillo.&nbsp;</p><p>The concerns don’t stem from opposition to the vision that many companies are promoting, but rather the approach and attitude.&nbsp;</p><p>Irizarry Rivera supports an increase in distributed resources like micro-grids, but doesn't believe Puerto Rico should become a large-scale testing ground for technologies that haven’t yet been deployed at scale.</p><p>“I often wonder if this type of experiment would be taking place in Texas,” said Irizarry Rivera. “It’s not time to be experimenting with people. We need to get electricity.”</p><p>Unlike several of the professors, Irizarry Rivera said all traditional power should be restored before the government remodels the system.</p><p>Ortiz García suggested companies take cues from communities, grassroots leaders, and experts from the island rather than peddling pre-formed ideas.&nbsp;</p><h2>“Not a lot of walking”</h2><p>About two months before Hurricane Maria, several professors affiliated with INESI sent a letter to District Court Judge Laura Swain, who has presided over the island’s bankruptcy proceedings, outlining a vision for Puerto Rico’s energy future. In three pages the academics presented a renewable-powered vision they had spent much of their careers studying.</p><p>The plan included distributed rooftop solar and “solar communities,” microgrids, demand response programs, and energy storage. In written testimony provided at the beginning of February to the fiscal board, a similar grouping of professors lobbied for citizen-owned generation.</p><p>“Keeping the same type of electric system and simply transferring it from public to private hands will not resolve our electricity challenges,” they wrote. “A rooftop solar-based electrical grid could leapfrog a centralized, hierarchical system to a distributed prosumer transactive energy market in which public policy facilitates citizens’ investments in the electrical system mainly through rooftop solar, distributed energy storage and smart meter technology.”</p><p>Many of the proposals from academics mirror suggestions from mainland interest groups and clean energy companies. In a now <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/6/16438054/elon-musk-puerto-rico-solar-power-tesla" target="_blank">infamous exchange</a>, for instance, Tesla CEO Elon Musk proposed a remake of Puerto Rico’s grid using solar. “Such a decision would be in the hands of the PR govt, PUC, any commercial stakeholders and, most importantly, the people of PR,” he tweeted, eventually discussing his ideas in several conversations with Gov. Rosselló.&nbsp;</p><p>Pérez Lugo said she does see some evolution in the way the government is approaching and talking about energy. But she’s unsure concrete change will come next.&nbsp;</p><p>“There’s a lot of talking, but not a lot of walking in that sense,” said Pérez Lugo.</p><p>O’Neill Carrillo said in practice he sees a contradiction between discussions about privatizing the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and selling off its generation assets, and proposals to incorporate more renewables into the island’s generation mix.</p><p>“I think we have lost the perspective that electricity is a tool...that you use to develop the country you want to be in the future,” said Pérez Lugo. “We are wasting a very good opportunity to rethink, re-visualize our [island] in all aspects -- including in the energy sector.”</p><p>Whatever comes next, the professors say the process needs to be democratic, with a focus on the island’s socioeconomic development.&nbsp;</p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=aN0q_DGX5WU:v2W-Q66F2A8:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=aN0q_DGX5WU:v2W-Q66F2A8:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=aN0q_DGX5WU:v2W-Q66F2A8:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=aN0q_DGX5WU:v2W-Q66F2A8:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=aN0q_DGX5WU:v2W-Q66F2A8:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=aN0q_DGX5WU:v2W-Q66F2A8:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=aN0q_DGX5WU:v2W-Q66F2A8:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/aN0q_DGX5WU" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/green-energy-colonialism-in-puerto-rico Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-10886282586119868272018-03-07T13:18:00.001-08:002018-03-07T13:18:05.220-08:00Democrats Release Infrastructure Plan With $80 Billion for Grid Upgrades<p>Senate Democrats released a <a href="https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Senate%20Democrats'%20Jobs%20and%20Infrastructure%20Plan.pdf" target="_blank">$1 trillion infrastructure plan</a> Wednesday framed as a way to give Republican "tax giveaways" for the wealthy back to the American people.</p><p>While the plan is unlikely to be embraced by President Trump or gain traction in a GOP Congress, it serves as a meaningful policy document as the nation heads into a grueling midterm election season.</p><p>"Our plan will improve the daily lives of millions of American families by creating a 21st century transportation network, rebuilding water systems and schools, making our electric system stronger and our communities more resilient, and much more," the Democrat plan states. "And we will make these critical investments without undermining important environmental protections."</p><p>The White House unveiled a <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-trump-infrastructure-plan-falls-flat-on-clean-energy-and-climate#gs.Ga80mZE">$200 billion infrastructure plan</a> last month that sought to&nbsp;“stimulate at least $1.5 trillion in new investment over the next 10 years,” largely from local and private sources. Many environmental and clean energy groups opposed the plan, which they say is damaging or does nothing to improve U.S. health and prosperity. The plan is also facing strong pushback from local lawmakers, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/02/23/the-math-in-trumps-infrastructure-plan-is-off-by-98-percent-upenn-economists-say/?utm_term=.8b85212560f5" target="_blank">economists</a> and even some in <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chao-says-options-table-fund-172822007.html" target="_blank">Trump's own party</a>&nbsp;over how to pay for it.&nbsp;</p><p>Democrats took a different tack by boosting federal spending and paying for it through additional tax reform. Major ticket items include $140 billion to repair roads and bridges, $115 billion for water and sewer infrastructure, $115 billion to update public transportation, and $40 billion to enable universal high-speed internet access.</p><p>For the power and cleantech sectors, the proposal includes an attractive $80 billion to "bring innovation to America's energy grid." That funding would go toward research, development and demonstration programs for "energy storage and other advanced grid technologies, including microgrids and distribution-level investments" and would "help integrate more renewable energy onto the grid, empower consumers, improve the security of the grid, and help meet electricity demand."</p><p>Smart buildings, smart transportation systems and smart grid technologies would also benefit from the $80 billion carve out. In addition, the federal government would invest directly in advanced building management and controls at government-owned facilities under the Democratic plan, which states that smart technologies have the potential to increase U.S. GDP by 25 percent to 40 percent by 2030.</p><p>The plan also cites $300 billion in U.S. financial losses last year due to natural disasters, which Democrats say justifies increased grid resilience spending. The proposal goes on to highlight Democrat lawmakers' desire to boost investments in high-efficiency transmission lines, efficiency upgrades, and federally-owned assets, including the Bonneville Power Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority. President Trump's infrastructure plan would have privatized those assets.&nbsp;</p><p>Policy measures accompanying the Democratic infrastructure budget include consolidating almost all existing renewable energy tax incentives into three new provisions that provide "a dramatically simpler set of long-term, performance-based energy incentives that are technology-neutral and promote clean energy in the United States." Democrats also proposed new incentives based on performance, rather than specific technologies.</p><p>The document includes the following policy changes:</p><ul><li>Incentives for Clean Electricity: A technology-neutral tax credit for domestic production of clean electricity. This would be open to all resources, based on a simple rule: the cleaner the facility the larger the credit. It would be available as either a production tax credit of up to 2.3 cents per kilowatt hour or an investment tax credit of up to 30 percent. The credit would also be available for carbon capture equipment, energy storage, and investments in grid security and resiliency to further reduce emissions and increase grid reliability.</li><li>Incentives for Energy Conservation: A performance-based tax credit for energy efficient homes and tax deduction for energy efficient commercial buildings – the more energy conserved, the larger the incentive. The incentives promote energy efficient construction of new buildings as well as retrofits to existing buildings, encouraging rehabilitations to reduce energy consumption.</li><li>Incentives for Clean Transportation Fuel: A technology-neutral tax credit for domestic production of clean transportation fuel. Again, this would be open to all resources and be based on the rule: the cleaner the fuel, the larger the credit. This would provide a production tax credit of up to $1 per gallon. The existing tax credit for fuel cell vehicles would be made permanent, and the per manufacturer limitation for the electric vehicle tax credit would be eliminated, accelerating the transition to a cleaner transportation system.</li></ul><p>Furthermore, under a separate $30 billion effort to promote innovation transportation solutions, the Democratic plan calls for $3 billion for electric vehicle charging infrastructure and refueling corridors for hydrogen, propane and natural gas.&nbsp;</p><p>To pay for the $1 trillion plan, Democrats propose reversing certain tax breaks. For instance, the corporate tax rate, which was slashed from 35 percent to 21 percent under the Republican plan, would climb back to 25 percent under the Democratic plan. Democrats would also restore the estate tax exemption to $11 million for couples, after the GOP bill doubled it.</p><p>Environment and clean energy groups gave a warm greeting to the Senate proposal.</p><p>"With this proposal, Senate Democrats are demonstrating what real leadership on infrastructure looks like: a tangible federal investment that drives us towards a clean energy future, plans for a changing climate, protects our natural resources and makes smart transportation choices," said Sara Chieffo, vice president for government affairs at the League of Conservation Voters." We know that we don't need to sacrifice our environmental safeguards in order to boost our nation's infrastructure."</p><p>Stephanie Gidigbi, senior adviser to the Natural Resources Defense Council, called the plan "a genuine 21st century infrastructure proposal."</p><p>While both political parties agree the U.S. is in desperate need of an infrastructure overhaul, paying for it remains a sticking point. Some business groups say it's imperative to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-07/business-groups-say-time-is-now-to-increase-gas-tax-for-roads" target="_blank">raise the gas tax</a> in order to pay for infrastructure upgrades, but the idea has been panned by Republicans. GOP lawmakers are also rejecting the Senate Democrats' latest tax reform proposal to fund roads, waterways and the grid.</p><p>“If Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats spent more time working with Republicans on infrastructure and less time thinking of new ways to raise taxes on hard-working Americans, we would be making more progress,” said U.S. Senator John Barrasso, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, in a statement Wednesday.</p><p>“More than 90 percent of American workers have seen more money in their take-home paychecks because of the tax relief law," he said. "Now Senate Democrats want to take their hard-earned money away from them."</p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=KGXm7gaOAxo:odAfJueH20E:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=KGXm7gaOAxo:odAfJueH20E:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=KGXm7gaOAxo:odAfJueH20E:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=KGXm7gaOAxo:odAfJueH20E:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=KGXm7gaOAxo:odAfJueH20E:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=KGXm7gaOAxo:odAfJueH20E:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=KGXm7gaOAxo:odAfJueH20E:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/KGXm7gaOAxo" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/democrats-infrastructure-plan-80-billion-grid-upgrades Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-20131528674878743502018-03-07T12:23:00.001-08:002018-03-07T12:23:19.035-08:00A Key to the Future: Utilities’ Vital Role in Widespread Adoption of Geothermal Heat Pumps<p>Utilities are a natural partner for the geothermal heat pump (GHP) industry. Why? Because utilities have a broad consumer base and infrastructure, and need to both build load (sales) and levelize that demand to make the most efficient use of their electrical generation capacity throughout the year.&nbsp; GHPs are a technology that fills that niche.</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/EnergyEfficiencyRssFeed/~4/ot0sR6Dh5eI" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Energy Efficiency RSS Feed http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2018/03/a-key-to-the-future-utilities-vital-role-in-widespread-adoption-of-geothermal-heat-pumps.html Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-20312696544626212502018-03-07T04:38:00.001-08:002018-03-07T04:38:11.701-08:00How to Start a Solar Company When Everyone Thinks You’re Wrong<p>It’s hard enough to launch a company out of your house without entrepreneurial experience or funding.</p><p>It’s even harder when your core thesis contradicts the conventional wisdom of the moment. But that’s what Sara Ross did when she turned her <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/how-sara-ross-started-the-solar-loan-company-sungage-financial#gs.SvJhiZE">difficult experience getting solar on her roof</a> in 2009 into Sungage Financial, one of the oldest and largest solar loan companies.</p><p>Ross was convinced that customer-owned solar made sense at a time when third-party ownership dominated and was seen as the future of rooftop solar.</p><p>Fast forward nine years, past unreceptive pitch meetings and financial close-calls, and history is proving Ross right.&nbsp;</p><p>Ross opened up about how she made it happen at last month’s live taping of <em>Watt It Takes</em>, a co-production of Greentech Media and Powerhouse, the Oakland cleantech incubator. Hear the conversation below, or keep reading for Ross’s strategies for surviving when the industry thinks you’re wrong.</p><p><em>The next live Watt It Takes taping will feature&nbsp;</em><em>SunEdison and Generate Capital founder (and <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/podcast/the-energy-gang">Energy Gang</a> co-host)&nbsp;</em><em>Jigar Shah, at Powerhouse on the evening of March 13. The event has sold out, but a waitlist is available <a href="https://wattittakesmar2018.splashthat.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.</em></p><p><iframe scrolling="no" src="https://art19.com/shows/b4df7c16-a169-4be5-8bfa-6dbb20a74f6d/episodes/b1108315-74cc-4672-a0c8-f45b9f9dfc58/embed" style="width: 100%; height: 200px; border: 0 none;"></iframe></p><h3>It’s not easy being right too early</h3><p>In her previous careers in international development and domestic public policy analysis, Ross spent her days translating good ideas into practicable policies. Faced with an $81,000 cash requirement to purchase a solar system -- with no financing options from her local installer -- she started thinking of new approaches.</p><p>At first that seemed daunting, because she had not worked in solar or in finance.</p><p>"Finance is just arithmetic and jargon," Ross recalled her husband, a finance professional, telling her. "OK, I can do arithmetic, and jargon, yeah, I'll learn the jargon."</p><p>After three years of seed-funded operations, it was time to raise some large capital. Ross started making the rounds of both fin-tech investors and cleantech investors, because her company straddled both sectors.</p><p>She faced persistent rejection. For one thing, her “background full of public sector and academic mumbo jumbo and four years of stay at home mom-ness” didn’t fit the pattern VCs were used to seeing for a successful founder.</p><p>Beyond that, Ross’s product flew in the face of the residential solar industry’s accepted wisdom at the time. In those days, the third-party ownership model’s leases and PPAs were ascendent. SolarCity and Sunrun were on a tear.</p><p>"The crazy part was, when I pitched the financial investors, they couldn't understand what this lease product was doing being the dominant product in the sector," Ross said. But when she talked to cleantech VCs, "I heard nothing but, 'Why is there a need for any other financial product? How can you beat zero down? It's like the end-all, be-all.'"</p><p>The assurance of the cleantech experts dissuaded some of the fin-tech investors from taking a chance on Sungage. Ross pushed back by relaying her own experience going solar and the small army of installers and customers she'd assembled who grappled with the same problem. She knew her concept would work because she’d seen it work so many times.</p><p>"At the time that's all I had, the story and the conviction," she said, of her early days. "I didn't have the know-how, I didn't know how I was going to get all the way from A to Z, but just a conviction that at some point the world will look like this new place."</p><p>Since those days, the market has proven her right. Rapid declines in the cost of solar modules have made the product more accessible while a proliferation of solar lenders has made finding a loan easier.</p><p>In 2016, a fateful switch occurred: <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/its-official-more-residential-solar-customers-buy-than-lease#gs.nJfshcY">more customers were buying</a> their solar than leasing it.</p><p>Even SolarCity, the early champion of third-party ownership, has changed course to pursue cash deals as new owner Tesla strives to make it profitable. Sunrun has bucked the market trend and continues to deliver third-party owned systems to almost all of its customers.</p><h3>Find people you can be important to</h3><p>Sungage faced problems early on when a large investor pulled out of a major equity deal at the last moment.&nbsp;</p><p>"Big balance sheets, big partners, big strategics can be very enticing and they can consume a lot of energy from you, and yet if you're not important to them, those relationships can be very fragile," Ross said. "That's exactly what happened to me: As soon as there was a bump in the road, there was no real purchase there on the other side of the table, there was no real 'We have to make this happen.'"</p><p>From that experience, Ross learned to look for partners who&nbsp;would be more than just another potential investment vehicle.</p><p>"Make sure when you invest in these conversations with people across the other side of the table, that you are important to them and you understand why you're important to them," she said.</p><p>Sungage found such a partner in Bryan Garcia, president of the Connecticut Green Bank. He had a pot of money the state had just dedicated to financing clean energy; Ross had experience working with solar customers and a financing mechanism that had worked at a small scale.</p><p>"He needed to prove the business model of the Green Bank, so I gave him an awesome opportunity to put his checkbook to work," Ross said.</p><p>Garcia signed on with $5 million to lend out for solar.</p><p>"It was one of those he was willing to jump with two feet without knowing where we were going to land," Ross added.</p><h3>Unconventional ideas call for unconventional funding</h3><p>Ross didn’t have any formal funding available when she made her first solar loan. But she did have a potential investor who didn’t ask too many questions.</p><p>“I decided that my daughter wanted to be a bank, so I took her college fund,"&nbsp;Ross said. "She was six at the time."</p><p>That money has since been repaid, and the company went on to raise seed rounds and a Series A and B.</p><p>These days, solar loans have become mainstream. When asked where the solar industry needs more financial innovation, she named loans for non-traditional solar installations, and expanding the box of FICA scores that qualify for a solar loan.</p><p>Venturing beyond the realm of well-to-do homeowners will look risky to many, but there are sources of capital out there that could go to work for those customers, if an entrepreneur makes the right pitch and finds the right partner.</p><p>For more in this series, see:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/nancy-pfunds-pro-tips-for-getting-started-in-cleantech#gs.GFQoEho" target="_blank">Nancy Pfund’s Pro Tips for Getting Started in Cleantech</a></li><li><a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/sunpower-founder-dick-swansons-guide-to-launching-a-cleantech-startup#gs.mneRapg" target="_blank">SunPower Founder Dick Swanson’s Guide to Launching a Cleantech Startup</a></li><li><a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/lessons-from-the-fall-of-sungevity#gs.1A=kmJg" target="_blank">Lessons From the Fall of Sungevity</a></li><li><a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/dan-shugar-the-king-midas-of-solar#gs.NLBYXdI" target="_blank">Dan Shugar, the K​ing Midas of Solar</a></li><li><a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-history-of-greentech-media#gs.DlstceE" target="_blank">A History of Greentech Media With Scott Clavenna</a></li></ul><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=Z6K--Iudixw:w7-T9G5f-sM:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=Z6K--Iudixw:w7-T9G5f-sM:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=Z6K--Iudixw:w7-T9G5f-sM:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=Z6K--Iudixw:w7-T9G5f-sM:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=Z6K--Iudixw:w7-T9G5f-sM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=Z6K--Iudixw:w7-T9G5f-sM:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=Z6K--Iudixw:w7-T9G5f-sM:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/Z6K--Iudixw" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/how-to-start-a-company-when-everyone-thinks-youre-wrong Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3365551233288740364.post-2564427969152526622018-03-06T14:38:00.001-08:002018-03-06T14:38:13.398-08:00California Sets Two New Solar Records<p>Mild temperatures and sunny skies helped California set two new solar records in recent days.</p><p>On Sunday, March 4, the California Independent System Operator saw an all-time peak percentage of demand served by solar, hitting a record 49.95 percent at 12:58 p.m. That's up from the previous peak of 47.2 percent set on May 14, 2017.&nbsp;</p><p>"The record is a result of a cool sunny day," Anne Gonzales, senior public information officer at CAISO, wrote in an email.</p><p>"Because it was a weekend, and the weather was mild, the minimum load was relatively low, around 18,800 megawatts," she said. "Meanwhile, solar production was more than 9, 400 megawatts."&nbsp;</p><p>A day later, on March 5, CAISO set another solar record. This time hitting a new peak for solar production of 10,411 megawatts at 10:18 a.m. The previous record was 9,913 megawatts set on June 17, 2017.</p><p><strong>CAISO&nbsp;Overall&nbsp;Renewables Production for March 5</strong></p><p><img alt="" class="modal" src="/content/images/articles/CAISO_March_5_solar_record.png" style="max-width: 100%" /></p><p>It's no surprise that solar is making up larger and larger portions of California's electricity mix. The state's three investor-owned utilities are well ahead of schedule on their renewable energy procurement plans and on track to meet the state's 33 percent mandate for 2020.&nbsp;At the same time, community choice aggregators (CCAs) are investing in <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-total-addressable-market-for-california-community-choice-aggregators#gs.mPF9F6A">additional solar installations</a>.</p><p><img alt="" class="modal" src="/content/images/articles/California_Utilities_RPS_Target_Achievements_.png" style="max-width: 100%" /></p><p>California's success to date is driving a conversation around the possibility of reaching <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/squared/read/california-100-renewables-2040-governor-brown#gs.nMH_Pvs">100 percent renewables</a>&nbsp;in the state, while also stirring debate over <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/can-california-conquer-the-next-phase-of-renewables-integration#gs.jTOvXtk">how to manage these variable resources</a> in an evolving grid system.&nbsp;</p><p>"The escalating integration of solar power has created a new operating paradigm for our system operators," said Gonzales. She pointed out that on March 4 the grid not only set a new solar record, but also handled a record peak for ramping.&nbsp;</p><p>"Our operators are skilled at handling these ramps, and we expect them to continue," Gonzales said.&nbsp;</p><p><img alt="" src="/content/images/articles/CAISO_Ramp_Record.jpg" style="max-width: 100%" /></p><p>CAISO is also working to reduce curtailment when there is an oversupply of renewable resources on the system, which is expected to happen more frequently as the state introduces increasing amounts of wind and solar. The ISO is currently seeking solutions to maximize the use of clean energy sources, including energy storage, demand response, time-of-use rates, expansion of the western Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) and the possibility of a regional energy market.&nbsp;</p><p>CAISO's fourth-quarter 2017 report on the EIM showed benefits of $33.46 million for its participants, bringing the total benefit to $288.44 million since the real-time market launches in 2014. The market also helped reduce carbon emissions in the western region by 7,730 metric tons by using 18,060 megawatt-hours of renewable energy that otherwise would have otherwise been curtailed.</p><p>The EIM currently serves consumers in eight western states through six participating entities. Another six entities will join by early 2020, including Idaho Power and Canada’s Powerex in April 2018.</p><p><img alt="" class="modal" src="/content/images/articles/California_Curtailment_January_2018.png" style="max-width: 100%" /></p><p>While California could break its latest solar records in the coming weeks and could see solar reach even higher levels in the coming years, there's unlikely to be a significant increase in solar, or any other renewable energy resource, on the system in the near-term.</p><p>Due to accelerated renewable energy procurements in recently years, coupled with departing load to CCAs, retiring power plants and other market shifts, investor-owned utilities procured no new renewable energy capacity in 2017, according to a California Public Utilities Commission <a href="http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/uploadedFiles/CPUC_Website/Content/Utilities_and_Industries/Energy/Reports_and_White_Papers/Nov%202017%20-%20RPS%20Annual%20Report.pdf" target="_blank">report</a>. Furthermore, the CPUC recently proposed utilities procure virtually no additional renewables in 2018.</p><p>"It's really disappointing," said Jan Smutny-Jones, CEO of the Independent Energy Producers Association (IEP), in a recent interview. "They're basically saying, 'There too much going on, we don't know what to do, so we're not going to do anything for a while.'"</p><p>IEP, which represents solar, wind, geothermal and small hydro developers, asked California utilities to put out wholesale solicitations for 3,000 megawatts of renewables this year. But their request was not met.</p><p>Smutney-Jones criticized the CPUC for being "too absorbed in modeling" with the expiration date for wind and solar tax credits looming. "For me, it's a little hard to sit in a meeting and talk about 100 percent renewables when our chief regulator isn't moving the ball."</p><div class="feedflare"><a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=nsuQRzx2LNY:kTmdzKHaOvg:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=nsuQRzx2LNY:kTmdzKHaOvg:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=nsuQRzx2LNY:kTmdzKHaOvg:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=nsuQRzx2LNY:kTmdzKHaOvg:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=nsuQRzx2LNY:kTmdzKHaOvg:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.greentechmedia.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?a=nsuQRzx2LNY:kTmdzKHaOvg:gIN9vFwOqvQ"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/GTM_Solar?i=nsuQRzx2LNY:kTmdzKHaOvg:gIN9vFwOqvQ" border="0" /></a></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GTM_Solar/~4/nsuQRzx2LNY" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from GTM Solar https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/california-sets-two-new-solar-records Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0